Sade
by NafanuaWarGoddess
Summary: Sade Tanielu, a small-town girl, moves to the thriving Japanese city of Bunkyo with her family. Thanks to a new house, a stroll on the wrong side of the sidewalk, a car accident, a scholarship to Ouran Private Academy, and the Host Club, things are about to change.
1. Before You Read

First of all, thank you for stopping by to my humble story.

I'm the author, Nafanua, but feel free to shorten that any way you like. If you want, you can come up with some other nickname. I go in my author notes by the name 'Nua'.

There will probably be an author's note within each chapter. I'll be updating this page every now and then as well, so stay tuned (please).

 **Warnings & Announcements:**

• There's cursing in this book. (A lot of it)

• I update slow as all hell sometimes, but I promise you that I won't give up on this story.

• Covers change frequently.

• I'm still editing this story. For the most part, it's a first draft. Things may change. If there's anything monumental I'll tell you.

• If you have any questions about Sade (be it her character or the story itself), feel free to ask them.

• When I'm finished writing, I'll probably be publishing a book of this book's deleted scenes, fun facts, scrapped ideas, etc.

 **Achievements, Courtesy of You Readers:**

• At some point Sade reached 1k views, but I can't remember when. (Forgive me!)

• WTFFFFF [10/11] We're at 1.9k views! Thanks guys!

 **Tidbits:**

• Sade is pronounced Shaw-day. Rhymes with latte. So when a character calls her "Sa-chan", it'd be pronounced Sha-chan.

• Tanielu is Tah-nee-eh-loo.

• *ashamed, needy whispering* Comments are great, mate.

 **Titles:**

▪ Current title: Sade

Once again, thank you for stopping by! Joyous reading! I'm out.

Last edited: 10/11/2016

~Nua


	2. Ch1

**[Last edited: November 13, 2016]**

 **[Sade POV]**

There is a special place of loathing in my heart for being lost anywhere.

That being said, one can probably imagine how disagreeable I became while lost in the preppy labyrinth known as Ouran Academy. There was only thirty minutes left until class started, and I still needed to talk to the Chairman about my classes, escort, and uniform.

Exasperated, I charged into a hallway on my left in some sort of cross between speed-walking and stomping. I plastered on a look of indifference to keep from looking too scary. Nearly ten minutes of me wandering around aimlessly had passed, and my frustration was becoming anger. Right now would probably be a good time to ask for directions.

Girls would probably be better to speak to, since boys were mysterious creatures. Smaller groups of people probably wanted privacy, but bigger ones left more room for awkwardness. My desire to leave people undisturbed versus the preference not to be awkward were equivalent to each other.

I had just reached a large group when suddenly, a girl across from me swiveled in my direction. Her eyes lit up, and she broke into a grin that reached her ears. Odd though, I didn't know who she was.

"Look! It's the Host Club!" she squealed.

Of course she wasn't talking to me.

The whole group, as did all the other girls and a few boys, turned toward the hallway where the girl was actually looking, speaking rapidly to one another and calling out greetings to the Host Club. I was well-aware of what a host club was, but I had never seen one until that moment.

It became obvious why the girls surrounding me were melting into sighing puddles. The whole Host Club's looks were nothing to sneeze at, but the cute blonde in the front was the most noticeable. A handsome boy with glasses stood behind him like a shadow. There was a pair of amber-eyed twins with impish grins, both draping their arms around a brunette's shoulders. One of which had a cast on his arm. A tall boy with serious eyes and broad shoulders stood next to a short blonde who looked like he belonged in elementary school.

"Good morning Tamaki!" screamed the crowd.

"Good morning, my darlings!" he replied to his fans within closer distance. Then to the entire hallway. "And the rest of my darlings!" he said, "It's so wonderful to start off the day with the serenade of your angelic voices!"

Hm. And a cute personality to match. A Host Club's affections were nothing special and easily attainable.

They continued forward in the general direction of where I was standing.

No thank you.

"Last night," Tamaki went on, "I had the opportunity to dance to my heart's content with many beautiful princesses at the Finale of the Ouran Fair!" He spread his arms with a content, closed-eye expression, "I hope that you all had as good a time as I did! The fireworks weren't nearly as beautiful as you!"

I narrowly dodged being right in front of him.

"Additionally," said the boy in glasses cheerfully, "to capture the memory, we will be selling picture books of last night in the club room today. They're much higher in quality than the last ones, but they're also limited in supply. Don't forget to stop by the club room to purchase one today."

While creeping away, I stole a glance back, and Tamaki looked straight at me. It looked like he was about to say something, but the bespectacled boy went on.

"It also happens that I have a few copies with me. Would any of you care to get an exclusive sneak-peak?" He pulled books out of thin air.

The entirety of the female population made a noise pitched well above what a human should've been able to hear. I thanked God for the kid with the glasses as fans flocked to him and practically trampled Tamaki. It'd be best to leave before anything else went on.

These were just other people living their lives. Not in the most agreeable way, but their business nevertheless. I didn't know them personally and they weren't affecting me. Besides, it wasn't my place to judge.

"Oh, joy! It seems that a new princess has arrived to our kingdom," Tamaki pointed out.

The sound of footsteps followed me. I turned around.

If I left now it would like I was running. Although, I shouldn't give a damn what it looked like! I knew who I was and what I was doing-but the last thing I needed was for him to go chasing after me.

"Hello there, I don't think that we've met before, princess," he said suavely waltzing right into my personal space. He then took hold of my hands and leaned close to my face. "Your lips are lovely. They remind me of a rose, so full and pink."

As tempting as it was to believe this random boy, I refused to fall so quickly for his flattery, even if his sureness in doing so had flustered me. Especially with all the swooning comments made by the girls surrounding us. I leaned away and forced my lips to stretch into a somewhat pleasant smile.

My first impressions, initial assessments, and the rest of that crap were only useful for handling small talk. They didn't _really_ say anything about a person.

I knew well that I could be wrong in all of my assumptions, but playing up to whatever people put on the table was the way to protect my pride from those who didn't seem all that trustworthy (AKA, Tamaki, at the moment).

"You're right. I don't quite think we've met before. However," I said calmly while removing my hands from his, "that being said, I'd appreciate it if you would please get out of my personal space."

"Oh. I apologize," he said dawning a look of realization and taking a few steps back. "Please forgive me princess."

He put a forearm to his stomach and bowed.

The fact that he actually listened to me almost confused me. From the looks of his fangirls, who were staring at me as if I had slapped him, rejecting Tamaki was not a normality. I had expected him to ignore my request and harass me instead.

"Thank you," I told him, returning his bow. My words came out slowly, because I was still processing his courtesy. I was glad he proved me wrong. "You're forgiven. Thank you for the compliment as well."

" 'Tis my pleasure," he replied, "what is your name, Your Majesty?"

I chuckled, the falseness of my earlier visage becoming a genuine smile. "Sade Tanielu, first-year. And you, Your Highness?"

He gasped, a giddy little expression on his face. He looked close to squealing. Did the word "Highness" really mean that much to him?

"I," he said pressing a hand to his chest, "am Tamaki Suoh! Second year and king of-"

"The Host Club. He's the president of the Host Club," interrupted the bespectacled host, leaving Tamaki to wilt. He passed his blonde friend and stood before me at a conversational distance. "I presume you must be the second honor student?"

"Yep. That's me. Nice to meet you. .?" I replied, trailing off to ask for his name. People flocked to Tamaki instead of staying to observe us. He bounced back, assuring them that he was fine and waving them away from us with the rest of the Host Club.

"Otori. Kyouya Otori, second year class representative and Host Club vice president. It is a pleasure to meet you as well," he replied with a smile.

Hm. The cool and collected guy, probably a guardian of the Host Club and natural born leader. With all of his achievements on hand his glasses certainly weren't just for decoration. Welcoming demeanor and possibly one open to helping others.

He fixed his glasses and continued. "You've reached quite an achievement, Miss Tanielu. Ouran's policies permit only one honor student per grade level at the high school, however, your intelligence seems to be the first exception. It's not often that we receive people _like you._ "

Okay then, maybe not _that_ welcoming.

Perhaps it was the way the light glared off of his glasses or the calculative aura that he radiated, but something about this guy made me unsure of what whether his comment was good or bad.

"People like me?" I asked.

"Yes. As in-" but he was interrupted by the twins.

"As in commoner. You must be smarter than Haruhi to even enroll at Ouran while he's here and at this time of year," they said.

The supposed Haruhi muttered about how they were taking 'this poor thing too far again.'

"Commoner?" I said incredulously.

"Yeah! A superhero to other commoners, just like Haru-chan!" the elementary-looking boy said. The tall fellow behind him nodded.

"Precisely! You must have worked so hard to earn your place here at Ouran! We fully acknowledge your valiant efforts in becoming a hero to other poor people!" Tamaki exclaimed.

His tone was that of one who pitied. Not even half an hour into my new student life and I had already found more than one person who irritated the crap out of me. Wonderful.

I pushed up my glasses, trying to keep my face as a mask of neutrality. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me a commoner. It's rude."

"How so?" Kyouya said, "It refers to people from the middle class, such as yourself."

"It's also degrading from a time period where monarchy was still popular. It's synonymous to peasant, and peasants were uneducated and seen as lowly. You realize that, don't you?" I replied.

"I am well aware of that definition, but that wasn't the meaning I was referring to. Besides, this school was built for the elite so you wouldn't be one if you were able to enroll here on a whim," he retorted. Though I didn't look directly, I noticed a few spectators on the far end of the hallway shifting uncomfortably.

My face grew hot with anger and slight embarrassment. Thankfully, my light brown pigmentation was sure to hide any redness from the blood rush.

First he said that 'lowly' wasn't what he meant, and then he decides to put the school on a pedestal and fling me beneath it?! How the hell was I even supposed to respond to that? With that quick of a tongue he could probably keep an argument for hours.

No. No, fuck that. That middle school mindset that said the only objective here was to one-up him. He could only 'win' this if I let him.

"I deserve to be here just as much as you do," I said, enunciating every syllable with calmness."And yes, I do realize that you didn't say anything about me _not_ deserving to be here, but at the same time you're implying otherwise. I couldn't care less if you were politically or figuratively speaking because you're not thinking about the real message your words convey."

"Oh really?" he said with an unchanging expression.

I hated his composure. It was the unreadable, heat-withstanding type that left me with nothing to infer and a smugness I envied.

I wanted that. I wanted a mask that revealed nothing and the power to remain unaffected by others' irritating ways.

However, I was raised to know that I am whatever I wish to be. I realized my mistake in envying him, even for a moment. I caught the error running through my mind and snapped its spine, telling myself to keep calm and simply exist.

"Really. I know I wouldn't have gotten into this school without my brain, but now that I'm here, we're equals. What you were implying is that there's only a financial distance between me and the rest of the people here. That 'commoner' is just a word I shouldn't be offended by, but," I swept an open palm in his group's direction, "my point is only further proven by the rest of your friends back there."

I gazed into the tiny boy's, the twins', and Tamaki's eyes, then back to Kyouya, lowering my hand.

"I'm a hero to poor people, am I? How on earth did I go from 'princess' to 'peasant'?!" I said making air quotes with my fingers. "I'm not a poor person. I'm a member of the middle class, and if you knew me, a provided-for, well-adjusted girl who is proud of her middle class mother and father, you'd know that I'm not someone to be pitied because you speak as if I am weak and unprivileged. The difference between my parents' wallets and yours will not and will never qualify you to call me a commoner. If you really thought that I was equal, you wouldn't be trying to convince me of what I should feel, like some overbearing power figure. You'd show me that my feelings are indeed valid."

He remained unmoving, and that was fine with me. I kind of regretted mentioning 'parents' wallets' since his parents might even be dead, but what was done was done. Can't be friends with everybody, can I?

"But then again, I don't need or care for your validation. You and I are irrelevant to one another's lives, and have nothing to prove to each other. Please don't bother me again," I concluded.

I stared him in the eye for a few seconds more, then charged past him and the Host Club.

 **[3rd Person POV]**

"Please don't bother me again," Sade finished, leaving without so much as a backwards glance. They said nothing until sure that she was out of earshot.

"Wow. Someone's not having a good day," Haruhi remarked.

"Man, Kyouya-Senpai," Hikaru began.

"You really set her off," Kaoru concluded.

Honey and Mori nodded. Tamaki didn't remove his eyes from where the new girl was last visible.

"If I recall correctly, you lot made similar comments as well," Kyouya replied raising a brow. He had to admit that she made a few points, but wondered if it was really necessary for her to be so angry instead of simply accepting her place in society. It was merely a fact.

Perhaps it was because she was a foreigner? She certainly didn't look Japanese. He had only received the news about her arrival that morning, so he didn't have a chance to look at her student file.

The hallway buzzed about the latest honor student, a bold girl who dared confront their beloved club. This could be a problem.

"She hates us now!" Tamaki cried out, sinking toward the ground with a hand on his forehead. Haruhi patted his shoulder.

"I don't think she feels that strongly, Senpai, but she's not just mad at you," she said, directing her gaze toward Kaoru, Hikaru, and Kyouya.

"To be honest, she took it way too seriously," commented Kaoru and Hikaru shrugging.

"Sa-chan's unhappy now!" Honey said with worry.

Tamaki regained his composure and sparkled. "In any case, it is the Host Club's job to make every girl happy!"

"But boss, she's so touchy," retorted the twins.

"-and we have done the exact oppposite!" he continued.

"I was stating facts," Kyouya replied.

Tamaki pouted at him slightly.

"But that didn't exactly make things any better," Haruhi muttered, receiving a sideways glance from Kyouya.

"Regardless of whose fault this was," Tamaki powered through," I intend to make sure that Sade knows that she is welcome! Operation Win Over Sade Tanielu begins now!"

Honey and Mori were the only ones showing remote enthusiasm in their king's latest scheme. While Haruhi was indifferent, it seemed that Kyouya and the twins were less than satisfied. Kaoru and Hikaru sulked, and Kyouya, of course, revealed nothing.

Nothing would be gained from trying to comfort this fussy commoner. The simplest thing to do was to leave her be. However, Kyouya knew by now that Tamaki's bleeding heart couldn't be assuaged for such reasons.

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **Ahh! Thank you so much for reading this far! I needed so badly to test out the water because I can't tell how long I've been thinking about this story, writing this chapter alone over and over and over again. I have a feeling that I messed up on tenses a lot. (I also rewrote parts of it, which got erased when I didn't save them properly. I felt like dumping my laptop out my window).**

 **By the way, Sade's name is pronounced Shaw-day. Rhymes with latte. So when Honey calls her "Sa-chan", it'd be pronounced Sha-chan. Tanielu is Tah-nee-eh-loo. It may sound weird, but trust me, it isn't Japanese. Sade is half Samoan [Saw-mo-en not Suh-mowen] and half Filipino. Refer to the map in the media above [this is , not Wattpad, so you'll have to look it up] for where Samoa even is. There's two Samoas: American and regular. Regular is the one that is independent, and not a territory of America.**

 **I haven't gotten further than the second chapter because I was insecure, but I decided to publish this now and see how it goes. I beg of you to be honest and tell me if there was anything that I could improve on! Was everybody in character? (And what do you think of Sade as a character so far?)**

 **And please, remember to comment, vote, and add to your library if you enjoyed! Peace out mah lovelies!**

 **~Nua**

 **(P.S. Today is November 13, 2016. Sorry for unpublishing Sade for a bit. I'm slowly republishing it because I wasn't satisfied with what I had so far, so Ch.2-10 are still in the works. I am grateful to those who continue to read this story and grow with me. Thank you).**


	3. Ch2

**[Sade POV]**

"You and I are irrelevant to one another's lives, and have nothing to prove to each other. Please, don't bother me again," I concluded.

Staring him in the eye for a few seconds more, I charged past Kyouya and the Host Club. I didn't have to look to know that the Host Club was staring holes into the back of my head, and would keep doing that until I was out of sight.

It felt good to say all that without stuttering even once. Every word came out perfectly.

My heart rate sky rocketed though. I was pissed, proud, and shaken all at the same time. Pissed because of you-know-who, proud of myself for my assertion, and shaken because it went smoothly without him firing back or anybody jumping in to help him.

Not that it should have mattered, but I had the icky feeling that I made myself a few enemies.

I silenced my thoughts once more.

People looked at me like I was some type of alien, whispering loud enough for me to hear, but not enough for me to understand. Trying to glare at all of them was a childish intimidation tactic that probably wouldn't work anyways. No eye contact at all would make me seem embarrassed of my opinions.

I didn't have to step around any of them. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, giving me a clear path to exit. It felt weird. I had often imagined situations like this before, but they never came to fruition. My realization that I thought this was cool made me cringe inwardly.

I bore a straight face and straight back, making eye contact with a few students. The point here was that I wasn't a commoner. That I deserved respect. We were equals. I wasn't any better than them, and they weren't better than I.

As soon as I turned the corner I relaxed, relishing in the tension free air.

I needed a timeout to calm my nerves.

I quickened my pace and turned left to the next hallway, where to my right and against a wall was a small table with a vase full of fresh roses, and a chair beside it. On the other side of the table was a pink door engraved with gold edging, no different from all of the other doors I passed.

I sat down and removed my glasses, cleaning them with the microfiber cloth in my pocket. Sitting in silence would only allow my overthinking to stagnate. I needed music. I whipped out my phone and earbuds, selecting one of my favorites from a French artist called Stromae.

Closing my eyes, I was immediately subdued by his melodic voice. Though I had read the translation, I didn't really need it. This was okay not to understand. Music doesn't have to be coherent to be enjoyed.

That was a value instilled in me by my parents. They filled my life with music from the very beginning. When I was a baby, they played Italian opera CDs from Andrea Boceli and Celine Dion to put me to sleep, along with Samoan lullabies by Adeaze.

I became so absorbed in the music that I ignored the voice in the background. There was a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes.

"Hm?"

In front of me stood a middle-aged Japanese man in a white suit and a purple tie, patiently waiting for me to acknowledge him. I pulled out my earbuds.

"Sorry about that, sir," I said, rising and offering him a small bow.

He chuckled. "It's alright, young lady."

"Thank you, sir," I said while wrapping my earbuds around my phone. I shoved it into my jean pocket. "So, uh, what was it that you needed?"

"Well, I was wondering why you were sitting outside my office just now. How long exactly have you been waiting? All you had to do was knock and I would've let you in."

"Huh?" I asked, "Oh, sorry again. I actually wasn't waiting for you, sir. I'm really looking for 's office and decided to take a rest."

His smile widened like I had something amusing. "Well, I apologize if the search to find me was so tiring, . I really must send an escort next time."

Words cannot express how hard I mentally facepalmed. The illusive was right under my nose this entire time.

"Oh!" I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. "I guess I should have studied the school map in further detail."

"Ah, think nothing of it. The fault is mine," he said while swatting the air. "Come in. We have much to discuss."

He turned, waving me to follow him into his office.

There was a large desk in the middle of the room with a gold name plate reading "Suoh Yuzuru," with an office phone beside it. The Chairman settled into the cushioned leather seat on his side of the desk. I took a seat in the smaller one opposite him, doing my best to quickly brush off my grey blazer and dark jeans.

"So," he pulled a stack of papers from a drawer, gathering and then tapping them on the tabletop to align them, "I'm sure that by now you've had ample time to explore the campus, correct?"

"Yes sir," I replied. Too much time, in all honesty.

He folded his hands. "How do you like it?"

"It's very beautiful. The roses make it smell nice, and I like the shade of pink on the walls."

"That's good to hear. And what of the uniforms?"

'They look princess-y, and they're kind of cute, but are for the most part unappealing', was what I so badly wanted to say. The collar was too high, the cuffs too large, the skirt shape too wide, and that shade of yellow would only make me look thicker than I actually am. Of course, who had the ovaries to say something so rash to the person paying their many thousand yen school tuition?

"They seem to fit the other ladies well," I said.

I cleared my throat, thinking about what I wanted him to think. Hesitant body language shows attempts to remain respectful.

He raised a brow. "You don't like them?"

I pushed up my glasses. "Not exactly."

He tilted his head as if wanting me to say more. Great. I had beat around the bush and piqued his curiosity, earning myself a chance to share my (respectfully) honest opinion.

"Sorry though, I understand that that isn't exactly my choice, with you paying for my attendance and all. It is mandatory in most schools that I wear a uniform regardless of my opinion on them," I went on slowly.

"Don't be sorry, I asked for your opinion," he said with a smile, "and while what you say may be true, there are many reasons why I _should_ let you choose. Would you care to hear them?"

"Yes, please." I replied. I loved it when things went my way.

"As expected," he nodded, "the first honors student, whom I believe you may have heard of by now, acquired his uniform because of his association with the Host Club. As you may know, the scholarship plan covers the costs of your classes alone, not the uniform, and I wouldn't want to inconvenience your family."

"Your consideration is greatly appreciated sir. However, my mother wanted me to ask you how much it costed," I replied.

"A bit more than 850,000 yen. Every uniform in this school is tailor made to fit the students as best as possible, and every student possesses more than one of the exact same uniform to switch out."

I almost went into cardiac arrest. 850,000 yen?! For that Princess Twinkie dress?! Hell no.

The Chairman eyed me with concern. "Sade, are you feeling alright? You're looking pale."

"I'm alive, sir."

He chuckled. "I take it that you won't be purchasing any then. Remember, you have a choice here."

"No, sir, I'm afraid we won't be purchasing one. Thank you though, " I said, nodding hurriedly. My parents would probably have real heart attacks if I had said that we would. Guess I was going to bear with sticking out like a sore thumb for the rest of the year.

"Additionally," Mr. Suoh continued, "your parents informed me that you had only moved in just yesterday, which was also the time the admission letter had reached you. And so, I'm afraid I've inconvenienced them already because they had to rush to cancel your enrollment in Higashi High School."

Inconvenience? It was the smallest of their worries. Mom and Dad were too busy getting my siblings and I situated, and couldn't and wouldn't stop talking about what this meant for my future and the family's future when they found out. Plus, we got cake to celebrate. The excitement this man stirred made unpacking our things go so much faster.

He was earning more and more of my respect. He was very generous and polite. If only the Host Club had conducted themselves in such a manner. They were cute and seemed well-meaning, but those qualities were overshadowed by their ignorance.

"Please, think nothing of it sir. This is an extraordinary facility and a once in a life time opportunity, they were thrilled to go along with it."

"Is that so?" the Chairman said, tugging on the lapels of his suit jacket obviously pleased with himself.

"Yes," I said, "myself included."

"Alright then," he responded, "next comes your classes."

He leafed through the stack in front of him, picked one out, and slid it to me. I scanned it as he continued talking, using a fountain pen as a pointer.

"Even though these classes have been assigned based on what you've desired as well as what you've earned on your entrance exam scores, I wanted you to take a look and confirm that these classes are ones that you are satisfied with."

The list read _English 3, Theatre, Chemistry, World History, Spanish, Japanese History, Art History, Maths 1._ English 3? That had to be a mistake.

"All but one seem correct." I turned the paper so it was legible to him and pointed to English 3. "I'm a first year, so shouldn't I be taking English 1?"

"Ah, that. That was placed purposely, under my request."

"But why?"

"Simple. You enrolled in schooling earlier than most, excelled in both your advanced placement classes and regular classes, and learned to read, write, and translate English with little to no error by grade seven. Additionally, you were reported fluent in speaking it without an accent. Ouran Academy should challenge you, don't you think?"

I grinned happily, slightly bashful. "I agree, sir." Though, I refused to reveal to him that I hadn't read a full novel in English besides the class readings since eighth grade. As of late, all I had read was a few Japanese novels, manga, and a ton of Tumblr posts.

"Spectacular. Now, comes the last issue." He checked the gold watch on his wrist, pausing. As if on cue, the deep chimes of the giant clock outside sounded. It stopped on the eighth chime, and he continued. "Classes have begun. Have you acquainted yourself with any of the other students yet?"

"I have." If arguing qualified as acquainting.

"Those people being?" he asked.

'A bunch of twisted twits' probably wouldn't sit well with him. I pushed up my glasses. "The Host Club," I substituted.

"Splendid. I'll call in first year brothers Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin to escort you to Theatre, Chemistry, History, and Spanish later. Haruhi Fujioka will join you three in Japanese History, Art History, and Maths 1, since I have a feeling that you two will be great friends as well-"

Splendid indeed. That is, if they even wanted to be my friends after the verbal lashing I gave Kyouya.

"-I would have brought in Mitskuni or Takashi to escort you to English 3, but they have a different teacher than you do."

Unfamiliar names, but whatever.

"And my son, Tamaki, is still in English 2-"

Okay then. New development, His Royal Highness was definitely a good person to go easy on.

"That being said, I'll assign second year Kyouya Otori to guide you to your English 3, since he is the only other member with that class."

"Thank you so much for your generosity, sir," I said as I pinched the fleshiest part of my thumb damn near the point of bleeding. The Chairman beamed and started making calls.

Ah, the wondrous ways in which the world works. My first conversation with this schmuck is a battle of wits and of course I get stuck with him as an escort. How many sins had I committed to deserve these things?

"-mhm. Yes, thank you Miss Takaoji. Goodbye." He hung up the phone. "I must say, it truly saddens me that I can't have Tamaki escort you to any classes, but you might just make friends with him otherwise, right?"

"Indeed," I said unflinching.

There was a knock on the door.

"Speak of the devil," said the Chairman with the same welcoming smile from earlier. I followed him to the door as he opened it. "Good morning, Kyouya."

"Good morning, Chairman," Kyouya said.

His smile was different than the one that he had first greeted me with. The first one started out pleasant and disappeared. This one was the smile of a people-pleaser or something else that wasn't what he was earlier. If that made any sense.

"As you're probably aware, Sade is the newest student to Ouran Private Academy. I'd like you to please take her back to English 3 with you, as it is a class that you both share."

"Yes sir," Kyouya replied, lightly bowing. He faced me. "Hello again."

"Hi there, Kyouya-Senpai," I said with minimal cheer and the smallest bow ever bowed before. "Thank you for your help."

"My pleasure, really," he stated, mirroring me. This was logical. It wasn't exactly the rarest thing to see teens put on a different face when around different people. I sure as hell knew that I wasn't the same here as I was at home.

"Well, Sade, you are dismissed. Have a wonderful day," said the Chairman.

"I'll try. Thank you," I finished, stepping out and bowing once more.

The Chairman closed the door, leaving me with Kyouya, who studied me with a frown.

I stared right back at him. He was the first to look away, allowing me to win the staring contest. He turned so that his back faced me.

"This way," was all he said before strutting away from me.

Mentally, I smirked in my micro-victory. Whereas some might take it lightly, little things about body language mattered-with this one in particular. He seemed to be the tpe who read people like books, so looking away most likely meant establishing his dominance.

I caught up with him, matching his blank expression and speed while maintaining a three foot distance between us.

Even now he said nothing. Though I was waiting for him to say something, I was relieved that he didn't. Keeping up arguments and such were taxing. He was probably trying to hold his tongue because he didn't want to start any unnecessary conflict. (Or something completely different, like just being annoyed by my presence, as I was annoyed by his).

He slowed down when we reached a fork in the hallway and turned, making it easier for me to follow up without any verbal communication.

Up close, Kyouya was even better looking than before. It was a shame that we didn't get along all that well. What was even more shameful was the fact that while my brain registered that his behavior was disrespectful, still decided to tell me, "Yep. He's a cute one."

This wasn't too big of an issue though. Recognizing his good looks while treating him the way his actions fit was entirely possible.

We turned four more times in the same fashion and transitioned into a casual pace when reaching the fifth hallway. He stopped and opened the fourth door down, not waiting for me to enter which was of course, expected.

I caught the door and entered on my own.

"Ah, Kyouya!" a dainty Japanese woman beamed, "I see that you've brought our new student."

Kyouya merely nodded at her as he took his seat. She turned to me.

"I'm your teacher, Ms. Takaoji. Why don't you come up here and introduce yourself, young lady," she continued, "and please, tell us a fact or two about yourself."

I switched my schoolbag to the other shoulder, walking to the front of the room.

"Thank you, Ms. Takaoji," I said putting on a smile. "Hello everybody, I'm Sade Tanielu. I've lived in Japan for most of my life. I am half-Samoan and half-Filipino. It's a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to learning with you."

To conclude, I bowed. This was the introduction that I had used for years. If I didn't say upfront that I had lived in Japan my whole life, people would ask if I was foreigner, or how my Japanese was so good just because of my island skin and full lips. It didn't annoy me or make me uncomfortable in the slightest, but saying the same thing over and over again did get tiring.

"Thank you, Sade. Please, take a seat," she added, gesturing to a row of three seats beside a window

One empty seat was beside the window. The second one was sandwiched between the first one and Kyouya's seat.

Just as I had slung my bag on the seat farthest from you-know-who, I was interrupted.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry Sade," Ms. Takaoji gushed, "but that seat is actually taken by Hideaki Ikeda, who is absent today. I'm sure you wouldn't mind sitting with your senpai though, right?"

Damnit, did I really have a choice? Asking me if I would mind was just adults' polite way of telling me to do whatever they were 'asking' me to do.

I put on a sugary smile. "Of course I wouldn't, ma'am."

Positioning my bag on the side away from 'senpai', I sat down and gave my attention to the lesson. Ms. Takaoji had projected various passages onto the board in English, instructing us to correct any grammatical or spelling mistakes, as well as to explain ourselves.

"Have any of you figured out number fifteen?" she asked.

Skimming over it, I immediately spotted the errors and came up with explanations. I enjoyed speaking and reading English, even though I hadn't read it in a while. I raised my hand at the same time as Kyouya, unintentionally.

"Go ahead and take a shot at it, Sade," chimed.

"There should also be a comma between the word 'no' and the quotation mark because it's a declarative piece of dialogue followed by a speech tag. The word 'I' should be capitalized regardless of the situation."

She wrote on the board accordingly with a marker.

"Go on."

"That's the wrong form of 'you're'. The one used is the possessive form, and should be replaced with the contraction form y-o-u-apostrophe-r-e."

"Perfect. Can you read the English form aloud for me?"

"Mhm," I responded, pushing up my glasses. "'No,' I told her, 'of course not. You're free of charge. He is the one who'll be punished.'"

"Amazing!" she praised in slightly accented English, but quickly switched back to Japanese. "You speak English without an accent! How long have you been practicing?"

"Thank you, and fifteen years," I replied, beaming.

Her accent didn't phase me. English is a difficult language, perhaps one of the hardest to learn ever because of it being riddled with countless spelling variations and obscure grammar rules.

Besides, learning a second language is a feat as it is, so someone's fluency level in it nothing to snicker at.

She nodded at me. "You did well, young lady. I expect that attitude to continue throughout the rest of your time here."

I grinned at her and nodded. Of course I would. According to the admission letter, I was to remain in the top three of my class if I wanted to continue my enrollment here. Nerve wracking though, considering another honors student, Haruhi Fujioka already existed. I'd have to pay my full attention to schooling.

Well, maybe not full attention. I still had to balance out my life. At home I'd have chores to do and fanfiction to write. At school I'd probably want to make a few friends and build something resembling a social life.

Ha! Kidding. Friends were nice, but weren't a top priority. Today I was feeling lazy. I honest to god just wanted to go home. The rush of enthusiasm that I had this morning before getting lost was long gone.

The rest of class went swimmingly. The material was fairly easy, consisting of mostly review exercises that tested my grammar skills and ability to carry out basic conversations.

Before I knew it, the clock's dismissal chimes rang out. I packed my things slow enough for Kyouya to get his own together and away from me. Trying to rush ahead of him would be futile, considering I'd have to wait for the twins outside the classroom anyways.

Once he was satisfying distance away from me, I took my bag and stationed myself beside the open door.

Recalling my conversation with the Chairman, those two would be leading me to Theatre, Chemistry, and World History class, then Spanish after lunch break. While searching the crowd for the said pair of redheads, I thought about how they seemed to be the most blunt ones in the group, considering what they had said earlier:

 _"As in commoner. You must be smarter than Haruhi to even enroll at Ouran while he's here and at this time of year."_

They were the ones who first dubbed me as a 'commoner'. Kyouya simply agreed, and I guess that was what pissed me off-that he backed them up. Should I have had a go at them too?

In contrast though, they hadn't said what they did with malice. Their eyelids were lowered and mouths neither frowning nor smiling-neutral as if they were 'just stating facts'.

How else does one even go about responding to that type of comment though? They insulted me and then gave me some half-assed compliment. Was I too aggressive?

They didn't seem to see anything wrong with what they were doing, just like their friends.

Perhaps, I should have taken their backgrounds and the way they were raised into further consideration. I mean, factually, they were part of the upper class. Maybe, when they were younger, their parents raised them up to look down upon or pity the middle class.

Filthy-rich was their normal, and average household was mine. We lived in two different worlds in which whatever was lower was considered poor.

The real problem here was that in choosing between my original thoughts versus these new ones, I had to figure out if I was being too nice. Being stepped on wasn't something I planned to do until I was stone cold and six feet under. The word 'commoner' was not a negotiable title. I didn't want it.

A quote from one of the hundreds songs on my playlist came to mind. It was from Panic! At The Disco's"I Write Sins Not Tragedies":

 _"It's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality."_

I supposed the lead singer was right. I decided to face them (and the rest of the people throughout my day) with a sense of poise and rationality, in curiosity of where it would lead me.

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **[Last edited: November 13, 2016. I merged Ch.2 and old Ch.3 for the sake of keeping a semi-constant chapter minimum length. Parts of both Ch.2 and Ch.3 have been taken out because whythefuckdidImakehersodamncockyatsomepoints**

 **Imeanseriouslywherewasmychill**

 **Hehe, I mean, there was grammar errors!**

 **Also, Sade is no longer 14. She's 15.]**

 **Thank you so much for reading this far! I appreciate your constant support guys! Shoutout to:**

 **Nicoru-senpai ( NicoleGriffis )and Alex-senpai ( Alexandria_Walker ) for the all of the time you spend giving me advice and chit-chatting with me about books and life and...yeah XD**

 **-Lumi- Thank you for blogging about Sade, I haven't forgotten about it. (I screenshotted it, it's mine forever now)**

 **Also, thank you for your thorough comments!**

 **I'm always open to constructive criticism and love making my work better! Please remember to comment, vote, share, and/or add to your reading lists/libraries if you enjoyed!**

 **Try not to punch anybody today! Peace out mah lovelies!**

 **~Nua**


	4. Ch3

**[Sade POV]**

Among the flood of people rushing to their next classes, I couldn't see Kaoru and Hikaru at all. They were going to make me late. The whole "we don't like you charade" was fine, but I still needed to get to class.

At least Kyouya had built up the decency to just get it over with. Two of passing period's five minutes had already passed. I was getting anxious. The school was much bigger than I'd have liked, so we'd probably be running to make it on time.

It kind of annoyed me that I couldn't find them because it seemed the only non-brunette people in the high school were them, Tamaki, and that small kid. No one else. Their location should have been painfully obvious.

"Boss is really losing it if he thinks that we'll get along with _her_ ," said the loathing voice of one of the twins.

"She's touchy. I'm not sure we'll even be able to go near her without having her blow up in our faces," said the other, amused. That one's voice was nasally and raspier. He, like his brother, still remained invisible to me.

Temperamental, eh? I suppose that there was no way to avoid that. After all, the first impression I gave them was (reasonably) angry.

Smack in the middle of the crowd was the giant boy from earlier, walking with the tinier one beside him. Those two were fine with me, for the most part. Baby-face had added a little bit of fuel to the fire, but it didn't seem like he had meant to offend me. I had only addressed him earlier because he was part of the hiearchy schtick. Stoic guy hadn't said anything, period.

I craned my neck to look behind them. Low and behold, I found my rather talkative escorts. They took sight of me, exchanged pained expressions with one another, then shrouded themselves with the rest of the crowd. My features scrunched, irritated by their pettiness.

"Look, Takashi," said the tiny boy, waving at me. I waved back. "It's Sade-chan!"

I pushed up my glasses, confused. The "-chan" honorific was something only people who were older than me used to refer to me with. I was pretty sure this guy was younger than me.

He took the tall fellow's hand and proceeded to drag himself my way.

"Heeeyy Sa-chan!" he sang, tugging at the sleeve of my grey blazer. He stared up at me with big brown eyes and rocked back and forth on his heels. A fraction of my heart melted. My seven year old sister, Alicia, was probably taller than him.

"Hi there," I replied, reciprocating the enthusiasm.

Takashi and I established eye contact and nodded at one another in greeting.

"We're going to English class with Ms. Takaoji," he said.

"Oh. Well, have fun," I responded, taking a small step away to hint that I had places to go.

His eyes got a little wider. He put a finger up to his mouth as if remembering something important.

"Oh! I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry I got you mad this morning. Will this make it up to you?"

He turned and dug a hand into his school bag, eliciting what sounded like the crinkling of multiple food wrappers. He pulled out a small brown box the size of my palm and held out it out to me with a giant smile.

"Aw! Of course, of course. This is more than enough!" I reached out and gently took it from him. It read "Gourmet Chocolate" in gold ink and had cellophane in the middle so that I could see two adorable little truffles. "This is so sweet! These chocolates look absolutely divine, but are you sure you want to give these to me?"

"Yeah! Long as you're not allergic to almonds, you can take it!"

Mini flowers danced above his head. This guy was giving me diabetes with that sweet personality of his.

"Thank you so much!" I said, taking the box and tucking it into my own bag. "What are your names?"

"Honey-senpai," said the twin with the cast, magically appearing at my side. "He's a third year."

Fortunately for me, instead of screaming bloody murder like I normally would, I merely stiffened unnoticeably. I'd always been such an easy scare. That wasn't the only startling information though. I never would have expected that boy, out of all people, to be a third year.

"And he's Mori-senpai," said the other twin, sweeping a hand in Takashi's direction. "Also a third year."

"Yup!" Honey nodded, satisfied with their introductions, "We gotta go to class now, Sa-chan. See ya later!"

"Yeah. See you! Thanks again, senpai!" I said, waving to him as he left with Mori-senpai. Well, that left two out of the seven cleared of whatever qualms I held. It'd be peachy if we could all just be friends, but alas, this world encourages the coddling of my own pride and whatever dignity I may own to ensure I receive the respect I'm entitled to.

The casted twin came in closer, perching his elbow on my shoulder like an armrest.

"We scared you real bad, huh?"

I lied like a dog. "Pfft. Not quite."

"Oh. Pity. Guess we'll have to try harder next time. You ready for Theatre class?"

"Yeah. I've been ready for the past three minutes," came my dry response. I didn't exactly remember when we had become friendly enough to come in physical contact like this.

"My, my! Someone's touchy this morning," commented the uninjured one.

"Mildly, considering my escorts move at turtle speed," I retorted.

"Well then. Has something upset you m'lady?" said the one leaning on me.

I pushed up my glasses. "Nothing really relevant to this moment, good sir. Do you have anything to say to me?"

Like an apology, perhaps.

The uninjured one looked up at the ceiling for answers. "Hmm. . . not really, besides asking that you try to not to bite our heads off. Do you have any experience acting?" he inquired, mirroring his brother's position leaning against me.

Hm. Making small talk. I guess that was one way to go about diffusing the tension. (Though another box of sweets would've been welcomed as well.)

"I'll try," I replied airily, "and to answer that second thing: no, not really. Unless you'd count a less than a semester of it in middle school."

They spoke in unison.

"Are you any good at it?"

I pushed up my glasses.

"I'd like to think so. However, the quality of anything is subjective to the viewer and their own experiences. I'm no professional, at any rate."

"We'll just have to wait and see," they said cheekily, relieving me of their weight and taking a step ahead. "Follow us!"

And I did just that, strolling at an easy pace in between them.

They were so in sync. The otaku in me laughed at how weak in the knees some character from the anime, Soul Eater, would be at the sight of them. The character's name was Death the Kid; a wacky protagonist with an odd fetish for symmetry, a practice which these ginger devils had down to a science.

While I found their antics amusing, I wondered if they had anything in store for me, like a childish prank of sorts, or perhaps something to annoy me in general.

Ha. They weren't the only ones with siblings. Being the oldest child out of four isn't exactly for someone with low tolerance levels, so I knew I wouldn't crack easily, if that was what they were going for.

"Hey, Hikaru, Kaoru," I asked as we passed up the Chairman's office, "which one of you is which?"

They smirked.

"Aren't you the lucky today?" commented the casted one, wagging an eyebrow.

"Yes, really, Kaoru," said the apparent Hikaru. He addressed me next. "See, Sade, since Kaoru is the one who got into the accident-"

"-you'll be able to tell us apart perfectly for just one day," finished Kaoru.

"Why? Are you getting the cast removed tomorrow?"

"No, that won't be for a while. I-turn here-broke it just yesterday, so Hikaru's going to get a cast too."

I followed their lead. "Again, why would you do that? Are you two really that set on being indistinguishable?"

They exchanged looks. "Well, yeah. It's more fun like that anyways. A game, really."

"How wonderful," I teased. "I can hardly contain my excitement. Can you tell?"

"Certainly," crowed Kaoru in the same manner. Hikaru snickered.

"Hikaru. Kaoru." said a familiar voice. Haruhi.

 _Kaoru_ was the one who turned around first.

"Hey, Haruhi. What's up?"

I mcfricking knew that they were going to dupe me, somehow. This wasn't a complete confirmation, but it was enough to rouse my suspicions.

Pulling the old switcheroo was so cliche. They could have done much better. I rolled my eyes in mock disappointment. And to think, after having the golden opportunity to master the art of deception as a pair of identical twins, they'd blow their cover just like that. Even I would have known to have each twin respond to the name that wasn't his.

"Not much," he said, speeding to catch up with us and joining Kaoru's side. "Just wanted to know if you did what Tamaki-senpai said to do."

"Oh. That thing?" Hikaru commented, nodding to his brother. "We forgot. We'll take care of it right now."

Haruhi sped up and stopped at the open door ahead of us. Looking straight at Hikaru, he said, "Thanks Kaoru. See you guys later." And then went to his class.

Bingo.

Both twins nearly stopped mid-stride but quickly regained their composure.

"About that thing that good ol' Haruhi was saying," they declared clapping me on the back and ushering me forward in an attempt to drive my mind away from their blunder. "He was reminding us to apologize. So-"

"We're sorry," said Hikaru, who was actually Kaoru.

"For earlier," said Kaoru, who was actually Hikaru.

"No problem," I said, chuckling. "I accept your apology. Hikaru-" I looked at Kaoru "-and Kaoru." I looked at Hikaru.

Both scrutinized me with suspicious squints. I could see the wheels turning in their heads. They opened the door, stepping aside for me to enter.

"Ah, the Hitachiins!" said a male teacher. "Just in time, and with our newest student I see. Come in, come in!" He skimmed over my figure and beckoned me over. "I am Mr. Tatum. Welcome to class. Please introduce yourself!"

I repeated my long-winded introduction from English class.

"We look forward to having you as well," smiled . Your seat is over there."

He pointed to a spot behind the twins. Woop-dee-doo.

For the rest of class I watched students improvise a few scenes, and some scripted ones too. The twins whispered frequently and glanced at me occasionally. By now it was probably safe to assume that whoever was my guide to any class would be the one sitting near me.

Mentally, I shrugged. The twins were pleasant enough, and our little conversation earlier was amusing. They seemed like fun people to get to know, so I wouldn't really mind sitting by them for Spanish and Chemistry either.

Theatre went by faster than English. The twins and I were through the door and out for the next class much faster than before. Out loud, I continued to refer to them using the names that they had given me, but in my mind, I called them by the right ones. We shared light conversation about our interests in each passing period, with me trying to take mental note of their individual habits. Before I knew it, Chemistry was over and we were on our way to lunch.

"Yeah. Then he turned over the curse doll and found out that said 'loser'!" Hikaru said, laughing to the point of tearing up. Kaoru and I joined in. They were on a roll, telling me a whole bunch of stories about their adventures in the Host Club while leading me to their lunch table.

"Wait, wait so you're telling me that just to visit Haruhi's house, you staged a whole fight?!" I exclaimed, pulling out my lunch box and taking a seat.

"That's correct," Kaoru added, sitting down next to Hikaru and setting his tray on the table. "And we ended up going too. Haruhi's dad is a really interesting guy. Though, he doesn't really get along well with Tamaki-senpai."

"You could say the reason they butt heads so often is they're too much alike!" Hikaru said.

Again, Haruhi popped up out of no where. "What're you saying about my dad?" he asked, deadpanning.

"Hey! It's the infamous Haruhi," I said, swallowing a bit of my omelette and waving at him. He sat next to me, setting down his own bento.

"Oh hey Sade," he said, casually passing two rice balls to the twins in exchange for their small tuna-filled hors d'oeuvres. It was an obvious show of his closeness to them. I smiled. Small things like seeing friends do favors for one another warmed my stone-cold heart. Haruhi addressed the twins next. "Don't tell me that you two've been talking with Dad behind my back _too._ "

"Too?" I teased, nudging him with my elbow. "Do you mean to tell me that someone around here has conspired against you with your father before?"

"Oh yeah, _someone_ does," Hikaru answered, taking in a mouthful of rice ball.

"The Shadow King!" Kaoru said in an ominous sing-song voice, waving his hands in my face.

"And this mysterious figure would be identified as?" I asked pointedly.

All three of them looked at each other, knowingly.

"Oh come on, guys! I'm not in on this little telepathic connection that you have going on, so it'd be nice if you just spilled it."

"Kyouya-senpai," they said in unison.

"Ha! I wasn't guessing him, but I kind of got that-" I paused, racking my brain for a fitting term. "-vibe from him. I mean, I know that's probably not the only aspect of him and his personality, and by no means am I trying to offend you. He is your friend after all."

"Not at all," replied Kaoru dismissively, "Kyouya-senpai does leave certain-"

He shivered. Hikaru finished his thought. "Impressions."

"Yeah, that's what I'm getting at."

I was tempted to say more. More about how he could probably verbally pick people apart and break them, given enough information, but that'd be a few steps too far. There were certain boundaries one shouldn't cross.

"You should probably be careful, Sade," Haruhi began, facing me. "He might find out more about you too."

"Me?" I scoffed. "There's not much to say about me. I'm just your average girl. Normal house, normal life, normal family. Besides, if he were to contact my parents he'd be in for one hell of a ride."

"Why?" asked Hikaru.

"Why else? My parents would flip sh-" I halted, nearly swearing out loud. Clearing my throat I continued. "My parents would flip tables man. My mom would be like 'Excuse me, who is this?' and my dad-"

I paused, picturing the livid brown eyes of a huge man with an island tan and slowly greying buzzcut.

"God man, he wouldn't even give him time of day. A few words like, 'Hi this is Kyouya and I'd like to know about your daughter' or something like that, and my dad would be on him faster than you can blink. He'd give 'im a full on spit shower through the phone, then track him down and tear him to bits."

Hikaru and Kaoru grimaced. "Is your dad really that scary?"

"Yeah! You'd have to break every limb in his body to keep from. . .uh. . .sorry," I said, realizing how intimidating I had built him up to be. I pushed up my glasses. "I think I gave you the wrong impression of him. See, my dad is someone who has built up a lot of patience in all his years, so it takes a lot to make him truly angry. One of the easiest ways to set him off is bringing up the topic of boys versus my sisters and me. He takes those very seriously, if they try to make a 'move on one of us.' He's more laid back with my younger brother."

"Oh. That might be a bit of a problem," Kaoru said.

"Reason being?" I asked.

"Well, boss wanted to invite you to the Host Club later, to make things up to you. I guess you'll have to say no instead."

My thoughts wandered to my parents, and how prickly they might become in response to me visiting a host club.

Eh. I could handle it. If I worded things right.

"No, no. I'll find a way. You guys seem like nice people, so I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, it'll be a one time gig. I should probably say hi to Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai later anyways."

V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

 **Hey guys! From here on out, things will be moving a bit faster. Not too fast though. I mean fast as in we're not going to proceed in a class-by-class type manner. (Somebody please tell me that they're not the only ones crying over their own first chapters because lord-knows-that-we-all-just-want-to-get-to-the-damned-juicy-bits-first)**

 **Story fun fact(s):**

• **the song above is a song Sade listens to in the morning, depending on how she feels**

• **her three siblings are in this order: Corinne [Ko-rin] (sister 12 y/o), Keano [Kay-ah-no] (brother 10 y/o), and Alicia [Uh-lee-shuh] (sister 7 y/o)**

 **Like every other chapter, I ask that you don't hold back anything. Please tell me (constructively) what you like and/or disliked with reasons why so I know how I could make my writing better and how I could keep writing in a way that would please you. Your thoughts absolutely make my day!**

 **Remember to comment, vote, and/or add to your libraries if you enjoyed!**

 **Peace out mah lovelies!**

 **~Nua**


	5. Ch4

**[Sade POV]**

After Maths, the four of us headed for Music Room Three. I called my mom to tell her I was going to be a few minutes late for pick up. She answered the phone within nanoseconds, causing the group to quiet down out of respect.

"Hello?" I said. Kaoru gave me a weird look, probably surprised she answered that quickly. I followed him and the others up a flight of red-carpeted stairs.

"Hey De-de," Mom said, using my nickname. "What's up? I'll be there in, like, fifteen minutes. I still have to pick up Corinne, Keano, and Alicia. The rain's slowing me down."

As if on cue, thunder boomed outside, followed by a flash of lightning made visible through the enormous window in front of us. I quickly put out my free arm to catch Haruhi, who nearly stumbled. He nodded in thanks to me. All three of them exchanged worried looks and picked up the pace.

"Sorry about that," I told her. Thunder cracked on her end of the line. "I was just wondering if I could hang around with a couple of classmates until you got here." Fifteen minutes would be just enough time to chit-chat with Tamaki and give Honey-senpai those cookies from my lunch.

"Yeah, sure. What grades are they in?"

"Two third years, two second years, and three first years." My company realized they were being mentioned and silently pulled in closer to me. We reached the top of the stairs and made a right to some hallway.

"Wow. So many people already? You're famous!" she teased.

I chuckled. "Well, kinda, but not really. We're acquainted, but I've only been talking with the first years and one of the third years. One of the second years doesn't seem to like me too much. Could be fate. Could be because I should've given the school map a closer look."

"Well, you're getting there," she said, "and you know that you can't be friends with everybody. I don't know what you said about the map, but I have to go baby. I'm driving."

"Yeah. It's weird. I'll explain it to you in the car."

"Okay," she replied, "meet you where I dropped you off this morning."

"'Kay. Love you, Mom. Drive safe. Bye."

"I will. Love you too. Bye."

She hung up. I let out a breath of relief, thankful that she didn't ask any questions about the club itself, or the members' genders. I was able to push away the twinge of guilt from not telling her I was going to a host club because I planned on doing that later. That and the fact that the stories the first year members told helped me realize how not-shallow the club was.

"Sade?" Kaoru said as we drew nearer to the club room.

"Yes, Kaoru?" I replied.

The two brothers exchanged surprised looks. Hikaru raised his uninjured arm. "Actually, I'm-"

"Hikaru. You're Hikaru," I said. Both twins froze. "You two gave it away earlier. However, like you said, I may not be able to tell you apart tomorrow. You know. With the casts and all."

"But how?" asked Haruhi.

These people were among the top ten of their classes. They weren't stupid. I couldn't reveal a thing. "That's a secret. Now, Kaoru," I ushered all three of them closer to the club room. "You had a question. What was it?"

"Oh, that," he said, "I was going to ask you why you said what you did before you hung up with your mother."

"Said what?" I replied.

"You said 'I love you'. You're going to see her in less than an hour so why bother?"

My first impulse was to ask him why not, but then I remembered how different each household was. Public displays of affection, be they familial or not, weren't exactly common in Japan. Not everybody could be as fortunate as me when it came to parent to child relations.

I wondered. Did he and his mother say 'I love you' enough?

"Well," I said, looking up at the ceiling for answers. "The way I see it, I don't know what's going to happen to my parents, or siblings, or anybody that I love. If I'm comfortable with someone enough for both of us to say it to each other, then I'm ninety-nine point nine percent of the time going to end up saying it whenever they leave the house or hang up the phone. I'd never want the last thing I say to someone to be something negative or insignificant. God forbid, what if they got mugged or got into a car crash and died?"

We stopped walking upon reaching the third set of double doors. Hikaru and Kaoru each grabbed a handle.

"Wow. That really is-" started Hikaru.

"-an interesting way to view things," finished Kaoru. They looked back at me at the same time, winking.

"Maybe we could add it to our hosting tactics!" they said. I rolled my eyes.

Haruhi nodded. "I don't really think that's what it's intended for." He put his pointer finger to his lips. "But maybe I should start saying that to Dad. . ."

I smiled, contented with the fact that I could spread small things like that.

"Anyways," Haruhi said looking back at me, "we're going inside to set up. Since you're not a customer and Tamaki-senpai invited you, you can come in a little earlier than most people. Sound good?"

"Mhm."

"Wait," Hikaru said, pressing his ear to the door with his brother, "we hear something."

"Yeah," Kaoru said, "I think it's Boss. . ." He scrunched his nose up and squinted in concentration. "But what's he saying?"

We went silent, allowing me to hear muffled yelling from 'Boss'. It mildly interested me but I didn't want to intrude. I spoke quietly. "Guys, I'm not sure this is exactly ethica-"

Haruhi joined them. "He's talking to Kyouya-senpai, I think. . ."

Before I could intervene, the twins opened the door less than a centimeter, letting Tamaki's yelling escape through the crack.

"Kyouya!" Tamaki exclaimed. "Why didn't you do it?!"

"Do what?" Kyouya asked. He didn't seem much invested in the conversation, as his voice was accompanied by the incessant pecking of a keyboard.

I couldn't see anything from where I was standing. He might be talking about me, but I wanted to retreat before I could find out.

Too late.

"Apologizing to Sade!" Tamaki exclaimed.

That's it. I was hooked. With me being a narcissist and all, there was no way in hell that I was passing up the chance to eavesdrop on people who were talking about me. I squished myself to the left of Kaoru trying to get a better view. No one objected because they were too busy listening.

The blonde went on. "It's not very gentlemanly or host-pitable of yo-"

"Did you just say host-pitable?" Kyouya interrupted.

Tamaki put his hands on his hips and mushed his lips into a pout. "It's a pun, Kyouya, get with the program."

The bespectacled host rolled his eyes and returned to his duties.

"Anyways," Tamaki continued, "it's not very courteous. She had a point there. I think you should apologize to her. Our senpais, my darling Haruhi, and even those shady twins have already made up with her. It wouldn't do you any harm."

The twins muttered lowly. Haruhi scoffed.

"And it wouldn't do me any good either," he rebutted, not missing a beat. "I regret nothing."

Pfft. This guy was just as bad as me.

Tamaki opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted again. Poor thing. Seemed like never got the chance to finish a thought.

Kyouya wasn't the one doing the talking this time, however.

"Kyo-chan," said Honey-senpai.

Honey-senpai had Kyouya's respect, evidently. He took a break from his laptop to give his senpai his utmost attention. Tamaki also listened.

"I really do think you should apologize to Sa-chan. If you listened closely when she was explaining why she didn't like being called commoner, you'd see that she talked about her mommy and daddy too." He stopped momentarily, most likely held up by a mouthful cake. "Remember? She said something about being a. . .what was it? Medium-class girl?

"Middle-class girl, senpai," Tamaki supplied.

"Yeah! Middle class girl. She talked about being a 'middle class girl who is proud of her mother and father if we knew her.' She took our words to heart, Kyo-chan. She's not just here for herself. It looks like she's here to represent her family too."

There was a mild grunt in the background that probably came from Mori-senpai.

Jesus Christ. Nobody told me that while being a martial arts master and a sugar junkie that he was also some analytic philosopher. And he was right too. I took pride in my grades on my own, however, I did my best to make my parents proud as well. I suppose I was representing not only myself, but my family, and everything they instilled in me.

This was new information to Kyouya as much as it was to myself. He was looking at nowhere in particular, and yet his brow held a slight crease in contemplation.

"But," Honey-senpai continued, dragging out the vowel sound. "I know that saying sorry isn't your favorite thing in the world, so maybe you could try to be a little nicer to her. Just think about what I said, 'kay?"

He pushed up his glasses and gave a reluctant nod.

The twins put out their hands in sweeping motions signaling for me and Haruhi to move out of the way. They held the door handles down and closed them without a click. We tip-toed a few feet away from the doors.

Hikaru used his brother's shoulder as an armrest."We should wait before we go back. Hey Haruhi, do you really think Kyouya-senpai is going to listen to Honey-senpai?"

Haruhi collected his thoughts then put an arm up to rub his neck. "Honestly, I don't know. I mean, Kyouya-senpai respects Honey-senpai just as much as the rest of us do, but Honey-senpai was right. Saying sorry isn't really something he does. I don't think it'll make a difference."

"Terribly honest, aren't ya?" the twins said.

"Well you did ask for my opinion," Haruhi replied shifting himself into side view.

Something was off.

Suddenly, I felt as if his face didn't look. . . _right_ for a fifteen year old boy. It was absent of any stereotypical male features. His nose was small, mouth petite, and eyes were similar that of a cat: wide and observant. His throat showed no signs of an Adam's apple whatsoever.

It could have been many things though. Maybe having an androgynous face was a normality in his family. Maybe his puberty was just delayed (or he just turned out small. . .not to say that small boys don't exist). Perhaps he identified as a male or plainly a girl who preferred 'men's' clothing at the moment.

Whatever it was that bugged me, I decided not to ask out of courtesy. If I found more evidence to support him biologically being born as a female, I'd ask him about it. Politely.

My phone buzzed. It was text from Mom.

 _Be there in less than 10_

I texted back _'Okay.'_ then pocketed my phone.

"Sade?" said Kaoru.

"Hm?"

"Do you think he'll try to apologize?"

"Mm-mm. He won't gain anything from it. Not to say we'll be butting heads often though. However, based off of how he handled things rather kindly with the Newspaper Club and still managed to assert himself when things went too far with that-eh, what was that French student's name? The otaku girl? Rene Kurotsuchi?"

"Renge Houshakuji," Haruhi corrected.

"Yeah, her. Anywho, he seems to be the type who reacts rather than acts. He won't interact with me unless necessary or approached," I stated. Perhaps I could slip in a few remarks here and there to loosen Sales Boy up a bit, but I wasn't exactly looking to be best buds.

For the umpteenth time today, the twins shot me suspicious looks, eyeing me like a piece of filet mignon they didn't trust. I rolled my eyes and pushed up my glasses.

"Now what?"

"We find it odd," they said, approaching me with arms around each other's shoulders, "that you're able to analyze the Host Club so accurately." They separated and surrounded me on both sides, each putting an arm on my shoulder. "What's your secret?"

I chuckled, flattered by such a compliment. It was an honor to know I succeeded in analyzing a few people. I've tried doing it so many times only to later dismiss it as me trying to be too dramatic. Or perhaps taking life too seriously. Things like my parents, books, tumblr screenshots, and anime all taught me at varying degrees to look for the deeper meaning in things.

Was I seriously about to say that to people that I just met? Haha, no.

I shrugged. "Nothing special, really." Pfft. Good one, Sade. "It was just a wild guess, based off what you've told me."

"But what if there was something hindering your analysis? What if we're keeping a secret?" asked Kaoru with a mischievous grin.

"One that requires us to exclude certain adventures," Hikaru added, stroking his own chin.

I shrugged. "Then I'd respect your privacy." Did they really think baiting was going to work?

"Drama and rivalries with other academies," said Kaoru.

"Sounds like a generic American TV program," I replied.

"Riveting beach episodes," said Hikaru.

"This is real life, not an anime."

"Encounters with the yakuza!" Kaoru exclaimed.

"Oooh! Scary!" Hikaru said holding up his unbroken arm and curling his fingers like claws.

"Intriguing, but I'll pass."

Haruhi stepped in and poked them both on their foreheads. "Don't forget the time you guys invaded my personal life in Karuizawa."

Kaoru removed himself from me to pat Haruhi's cheek. "But you were working."

"I was enjoying myself," Haruhi replied, catching the redhead's wrist.

Hikaru let out a dramatic sigh, still using me as an armrest. "Ah, it was kinda nice. I mean the food wasn't the best but we had lots of fun. A shame that Boss won though."

"Won what?" I asked.

"Sorry," the twins chorused, "you have to be level ten or eleven friend to unlock our secrets."

"Oh jeez guys," Haruhi replied. "You do too much. Listen, if Sade wa-"

He was interrupted by a voice nearing the door and then Tamaki himself bursting through it.

"I texted them nearly ten minutes ago, Kyouya," he said, marching from the club room and right past us without looking back. "I'm going to go look for them."

Kyouya didn't move an inch from his place at the doorway. His gaze flitted in our direction. "Look no further."

Tamaki turned around, confused by what he said but breaking into a smile when he found what he meant. "Your Majesty," he said, slightly bowing with a forearm to his stomach, "you've received my invitation."

I laughed at his reference to this morning's mishap, mirroring him. "I did, Your Highness. Sorry, but I only have five minutes, at most, before my mom arrives."

"I see. Well, no matter. I'm not one for drivel anyways."

Disagreeing murmurs came from behind me, causing him to to twitch slightly. He shook it off and came closer, parking himself outside my personal bubble.

"Sade, I am very sorry for offending you this morning. Can you forgive me?"

I nodded. "Sure. Apology accepted, senpai. Not trying to be rude or anything like that, but I want to repay Honey-senpai for a favor and I heard he likes sweets. My younger sister baked some cookies and I thought he'd like them. I need to drop them off and get a move on."

"Good. Kyouya can take you to him," he said gesturing to his friend.

Oi vei. He was trying to make things right himself, I see.

Kyouya pushed up his glasses. "I'll pass. I highly doubt she'd need my help in walking across a room."

"He's right," I commented, "I don't need assistance but thanks for the offer."

I strutted past both of them and through the doors.

"Hey, wait for us! We want to try the cookies too!" the twins called after me as I pulled said item from my bag.

The club room was awfully spacious and devoid of instruments for a music room. There was furniture set in some places, all of which were pink as the walls. Honey and Mori-senpai were sitting on two couches surrounding an oval glass table with their backs facing me.

"Sorry about that," said Haruhi catching up with me before the twins fell in step with him.

I gave him a 'why for' look.

"Just that in general. It was awkward." He eyed the bag. "Hey, can we really try the cookies?"

I smiled. "I don't know. Depends on how generous Honey-senpai's feeling. Frankly, I'm sorry for leaving you guys in the dust."

"'Not butting heads often' you said," teased Hikaru.

"Yeah right," Kaoru added.

Honey-senpai turned around where he sat and laid his chin on his arms. "Hey Sa-chan!"

"Hey senpai. I'm stopping by to give you these." I handed him the bag. "Share them if you'd like, whatever you prefer. My sister Corinne baked them. The chocolates were a more than sufficient apology and I wanted to repay you. Sorry I can't stay long. I'm getting picked up soon."

He tore it open and swallowed an entire cookie at inhuman speed. "Thank you!"

"Yeah, thanks," said Mori. As expected, his voice was deep and gravelly. It was the first time I heard his voice. Very manly. Very attractive. Inwardly, I laughed at my thoughts. Would it kill these people to not be so beautiful?

"No problem," I replied.

"Haru-chan, Kao-chan, Hika-chan! Come over here and try these!" Honey called. They obeyed, coming over and picking up their shares.

"These aren't half bad," Hikaru said.

"The filling is yummy," said Kaoru.

"I like the flavor. I think I've baked this recipe before. . .but it tastes different. Would you mind texting me the recipe later?" Haruhi asked.

"Not at all. I'll ask my sister through message right now."

I swore that Mom was super human for calling me the moment I took my phone out. I answered it, excusing myself from the group and heading for the doorway.

"Hey Mom."

"I'm here. Hurry up, the rain's pouring even harder." Poor Mom. I could hear my siblings bickering in the background.

" 'Kay. I'll be out in a few. I'll need time because the school's huge."

"Do you-QUIET DOWN-have your umbrella?" Ah yes. Concerned Mommy.

"Uh," I blindly felt around my school bag, finding nothing. "No."

She exhaled sharply, frustrated. "Oh my god Sade-"

"I'll be fine, I'll be fine. It's just water. The segments separating the primary, junior high, and high school buildings have overhangs anyways."

Her voice was stern. "Sade. The front of the school is meters away from the actual pick up spot." Crap I forgot about the gigantic grass area and leaf sculpture thingies in the front of the school.

"Then it's on me. If I get soaked, I get soaked. You know I like the rain, and you're probably using the heater anyways."

Another disapproving sigh. "You know what, fine. But don't come crying to me if you start coughing later."

"Yeah. Love you bye."

"Bye."

She hung up. Jeez. No 'I love you' back? I see how it is.

That was sarcasm. I know she loves me. She's just the 'tough love' kind of mom.

I called across the room. "Guys, my mom's here. I'll see you later."

They said their farewells. I went out, pausing to ask myself a very important question: did I even remember how to find my way out? If I took too long she'd probably get even more pissed. . .

"Would you like me to walk you out?" Tamaki asked behind me.

"Ah!" I jumped having forgotten he was even there. "Uh, thanks for the offer. I mean. . .I don't know. It's pouring outside and I wouldn't want you getting soaked before the club even opens. Do you have an umbrella?"

"Your concern is greatly appreciated. And yes, I do." He pulled a white umbrella designed with little crowns from from his school bag. He looked down at it fondly, his mind wandering somewhere else for a moment. "Haruhi gave this to me. From the supermarket, when they were having a sale." He looked up, having returned to the present. "Shall we go?"

"Yes. We shall," I replied, smiling.

 **(A/N)**

 **PLEASE HELP ME I'M DYING INSIDE (bc I'm trying to figure out where I am here)**

 **Hehe, I'm so excited to get to the drama llama parts but eh, c'est la vie. (No, I can't speak French. I wish. Je suis trop bête pour cela. JK.) (I used Google Translate for that last bit).**

 **Please forgive me for my slow ass updates. And please (great googly moogly I say please a lot) remember to comment what you thought! Especially constructive criticism. I'm eager to make my work better.**

 **AFF (Author Fun Fact):**

 **#1: Honest (and mid-story) comments mean more to me than votes.**

 **#2: I'm going to make a special Microsoft doc with all the nice things you guys have said to me. (Thank you, you people warm my stone cold heart).**

 **Expect next update soon!**

 ***sweats because I've made a promise which I now have to keep***

 **Oh well. Love you guys!**

 **I'm out.**

 **~Nua**


	6. Ch5

"Yes, we shall," I replied, smiling.

We went to the end of the hallway, making a left for the red stairs. The giant window from earlier flashed again, followed by thunder a few seconds later. Mom was right. The rain was pouring. It was only minutes past three and yet the sky was a dark enough grey to be five o'clock.

"You're not scared of it?" Tamaki asked.

"Scared of what?" I replied.

"The thunder and lightning. You're not afraid of it?" He sounded slightly confused. Like he expected me to be scared.

I nodded, pushing up my glasses. "No. I love the rain more than any other weather. You?"

"I'm not afraid," he said with a shrug. "But, I know someone else who is." He sounded out of touch with the present again. He paused, eyes focused on the path ahead before speaking. "Say, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"

"Of course not. Go ahead and shoot."

"Hm?"

"Ask whatever questions you please, senpai."

"Alright then." We exited the stairway and made it past one of the school's four libraries. "What have the first year hosts told you about the Host Club?"

"What do you mean?"

"As in which part each Host plays."

We turned again.

"Well, I was told by the twins that you each have a type. Forgive me if I mix them up, but I believe that you're the princely type, the twins are the mischievous type, Mori-senpai is the wild type, Honey-senpai is the boy lolita, Haruhi is the natural, and Kyouya-senpai is the cool type. You cosplay every so often. On a few occasions, the Host Club makes excursions to outside school premises. Behind the scenes, you often take the reins with the Host Club and help others for the sake of helping."

We swerved to another hallway. I couldn't fathom how he remembered all this. Everything was covered in pink and all the hallways looked the same. I'd probably have to print out a map when I got home.

"I see. What do you think of the Host Club?" He glanced at me sideways as if expecting a positive answer.

"Mm. . .considering all of the nice things you guys do for people and how kind you're being to me even though you don't have to," I nudged him with my elbow, "I'd say you're doing just fine. Before this experience I thought host clubs were frivolous havens of nothing but false romance. I know now that your Host Club is quite charitable."

He smiled at me, appearing satisfied with my answer. "Thank you. We do our best to make people happy. It is the job of a high school host."

We neared the school's exit. The high ceiling and over-sized help desk made me feel like I was in a hotel instead of a school. He spoke again when we reached the glass doors.

"Would you ever consider visiting the Host Club?"

This was the question I wanted to avoid. My answer would probably ruin the nice moment we were having because I'd have to gun down something he enjoyed.

In short, my answer was no.

"Uh, sorry, probably not," I replied, pressing my lips into a line. He didn't seem offended. He merely waited for the rest of my answer. I licked my lips. "Perhaps once out of curiosity, but nothing more. I'm not much for the idea of making appointments to flirt. It's just not my thing. Not that I don't like you guys. I certainly wouldn't mind hanging out with you outside of club hours. I just think our friendship would be more enriched if I wasn't paying you for it."

He chuckled while pulling the umbrella from his suit jacket. "I understand what you're saying, but customers don't pay. We go based off of a point system from our website. Kyouya would be able to explain it better."

I nodded to show I was listening.

"The twins also told me that your parents would disapprove of you going. Is that the biggest reason why you can't come?"

I sighed and bit my lip. Looking through the glass door, a single, black Toyota Prado could be seen. My car. "Yeah, it is. My parents are really protective when it comes to such things. Host Clubs are for simulating romance after all. I'm sure that you helping me out here is going to help with convincing them otherwise, so thanks for that."

"You are very welcome," he said, plucking the velcro strap that bound the umbrella. He opened the door, and took a step outside to open it. I joined him, having to pull in closer because of the umbrella's smallness. The pelting sounds on the umbrella sounded more like small rocks than water droplets.

"I think I'll have a word with your mother as well." He looked ahead confidently at my car as we passed a hedge sculpture.

My breath hitched as my mind went into overdrive.

Him have a word with my mother? Oh god. She wouldn't yell at him, I at least knew that, but it could potentially make things messier for me when he left. What was he even going to say? Hi, I'm Suoh Tamaki and I'd like your permission to entertain your daughter at my host club?

No! He wouldn't word it right.

Besides, I wasn't even sure if Mom was 'fit for the public eye' right now. For all I knew, she could've gone out as 'home mommy' which entailed of one of my father's house shirts, sunglasses, messy hair, no make up, slippers, and sweatpants. Not that I have a problem with that look, but she'd get flustered and angry I brought someone to talk to her while looking in that state.

"Eh, Tamaki-senpai, you don't really have to do that," I said, rushing my words as we neared my ride. "I mean, what if she yells at you or something?"

His nose crinkled when he replied. "I'm sure she won't. I'm the King of the Host Club, remember?"

I sighed in exasperation. "Well, Your Highness, my father is the king of my house and he still obeys her. She wouldn't relent even if you were the president of America."

"I don't know. A few kind words go a long way, Sade." He gave me a knowing look. Ugh. I completely forgot that his kind words and instructions to the Host Club really did take him long way-with me. My mother is not the same as me.

"That's-" we were two metres away from the car, leaving no more time for persuasion. I took a deep breath. "Fine. That's fine." I gave him the sternest expression I can muster, whispering, "Try not to say anything about the Host Club."

He shot me another one of his cutesy smiles.

Hopefully, his little plan would work. If he didn't mention the Host Club and was courteous enough he could earn her approval by playing the role of the 'helpful senpai'. It would help her see him as a good student before being a flirtatious host. I prayed silently that she was at least dressed well.

After school in the car was the time she tended to be most supportive, as she at least wanted to know how our days went. Other times, her attention span was short and focused on things like cleaning, cooking, her phone, bills, and other parental duties. This was another advantage.

The moment my hand touched the door two children's faces plastered themselves against the window. I gasped and stepped back, hearing Tamaki let out a small yelp as well.

It was my two youngest siblings, Keano and Alicia. The eleven year old boy and seven year old girl peeled themselves off the glass and fall back, cackling in their victory. I heard Corinne, the twelve year old, laughing just as hard from her seat in the very back.

Keano and Alicia were the darkest skinned out of the four of us, them being the closest to my father's Samoan tan. Corinne and I were two shades lighter, and yet too dark to match our Filipina mother-her skin was an olive tan. All of us, including my parents, had dark brown to black hair and brown eyes.

Mom made herself visible, leaning back in her seat to gently scold them. She sported jeans, a name brand coat, diamond earrings, and wore her short hair in a side bun.

Tamaki and I laughed it off as he tilted the umbrella over the car. I opened the door and swung into my seat. My two youngest siblings rolled to the side to make way.

"Hey Mom," I greet. "This is Tamaki-senpai. The Chairman's son."

"Hi," she said to me, leaning to inspect my acquaintance.

She turned her head, making the shaved side visible. Unlike the rest of her hair, which was streaked with blonde, brown, and honey shades, the shaved side remained dark brown. Which was her natural color. It appeared that Dad had extra time to shave neat zig-zags designs on it before she dropped him off for work this morning.

She addressed Tamaki. "Thank you for helping Sade, honey. I really appreciate it."

"It was my pleasu-" he began.

Alicia popped up from her spot in the back sitting with Corinne. Her long brown hair wass disheveled and resembled a bird nest more than an actual braid. "Yeah! She gets lost all the ti-"

Corinne leaned and clamped her hand over Alicia's mouth, giving me a closed mouth smile and a look that says 'you're welcome.' I mouth 'thank you' to her.

"It was my pleasure, . She's a wonderful person to be around," Tamaki finished and bowed as best he could with the umbrella in hand.

Nice move, Tamaki. Brownie points for the 'Mrs.' and the bow.

"Oh honey, it's actually it's Mrs. Delos Santos," she corrected. Oops. I forgot to tell him that my mother kept her last name. It wasn't because she and my father split up. They were still married. She simply decided that she liked her last name better.

He nodded in understanding. "Well, Mrs. Delos Santos, I must be going. Should you decide to permit Sade to visit our club again," he took a business card from the pocket of his suit jacket and held it out to her "then I'd like you to know that you have our contacts at your disposal."

I watched Mom take it from him between her thumb and pointer finger. He stepped away from the car.

She took a gander at the card, then nodded. "Alright then. Bye sweetie."

"Bye Tamaki-senpai," I said to him stiffly.

"See you tomorrow!" he replied. I closed the door while watching him turn back. Mom started the car.

I felt like punching out the windows and jumping through them. What the hell was he thinking? Did he seriously think using big words and a bit of courtesy would make the Host Club look any better? I specifically told him not to mention it and to let me deal with it.

" **What is he to you?** " Keano said in English with a furrowed brow. He ground his fist into his open palm. His black hair partially shaded his eyes, making him look ominous. I knew he was only half serious though.

Around the public we (my family) primarily spoke Japanese. Around one another we spoke English. We learned the core of our English from our parents, hence the reason why we speak it without accents. The rest was left to English speaking TV programs, books, and music. Our parents encouraged us to speak in both languages to each other, and to switch between them often.

I guess it was in our genes. Dad is trilingual, able to speak Japanese, English, and Samoan fluently. Mom speaks four languages: Japanese, English, Tagalog (a dialect of the Philippines), and Spanish.

" **Not someone for you to worry about, Keano. He's just a friend,** " I reply, leaning to poke his forehead. He calmed down and shrugged it off.

The word friend felt weird, considering I had only known Tamaki for a day. However, saying 'acquaintance' didn't feel right either because acquaintances didn't go the extra mile to make some stranger feel comfortable like that.

I hoped that we could become close friends in my time here at Ouran. Today had been a ride. It was the first time I had ever hung out with an all guy group. And they were all cute too, in their own respective ways. Though, I suppose that it was a blessing that I hadn't done so until now.

By now, I had already learned to supress my habit of crushing far too easily. Before I was aware of this problem, it was not uncommon for me to fall face first (not in the literal sense, thankfully) for any and every guy around my age who went out of his way to be kind to me.

That being said, I dismiss every single crush I develop, already knowing that nothing good will come of them.

"Good, son. You keep protecting your sister," Mom said with pride.

"What about me?!" Alicia said in the back seat. She mashed her lips together in a pout and crossed her arms. "I can protect Sade too! Huh Sade? I'll kick his butt!" She punched the air.

"Yes you can, Alicia," Mom replied.

"Yeah, sure you can. You can barely kick my butt," Rin teased, wrinkling her nose. In our house, Corinne mainly went by Rin.

Alicia's eyes widened in fury. "Uh-uh! I beat you up yesterday when we were wrestling!"

"That's because I let you win," Rin commented, rolling her eyes. She uncrossed her arms to catch Alicia's tiny fist, which almost hit her in the arm.

"Hey!" Alicia whined, trying to fight a now amused Corinne.

Mom often said that Alicia was the mini version Corinne. Both of them had round faces, were among the tallest and smartest in their classes, and loved to play sports. Consequently, Corinne was always the one to take care of both Alicia and Keano.

Unlike myself. I had practically raised Corinne. I took care of Keano until he was six or seven. I let Rin take the reins when I went to middle school. In this day and age the only time you could find me out of my room was if I was getting food or going to the restroom. I didn't much care for group wrestling or going outside, but I spent some time with them wherever I felt like.

"Play nice back there," Mom called over her shoulder. "So, De-de it looks like you've already made new friends. Tell me about your day. What club is that Tamaki boy a part of?"

"He's the president of the school's host club."

I held my breath waiting for her to burst. She kept her eyes on the road, thinking. "So the club you visited was a Host Club?" she said slowly.

"Yeah. Before it actually opened. Do you want the long or short version?"

"Whatever makes this make sense," she replied. I was grateful for at least getting the chance to explain myself.

I told her the longer but slightly condensed version, making sure to describe the favorable parts in the most depth (Honey-senpai and the chocolates, the twins apologizing, Tamaki walking me out, etc.) while still addressing the disagreeable parts as well.

I described first how and why the Host Club operated, mentioning things about how well researched their cosplay was, that it was a non-profit organization, and they helped people. I tread eggshells trying to explain the twincest.

I suspected that us living in Japan would slightly desensitize her because of all the odder things that occur in on Japanese TV programs. I said explicitly that it was just for show and that they didn't truly mean it.

Hiding anything from her and my father, whom I knew would hear about this later on, would be a big mistake. As their marriage is one lasting for nearly two decades now, they operated smoothly as one entity. Piss off one (which was my mother, most of the time. Dad's temper is extremely even), then the other would either calm them down or let 'em rip. . .

. . .you to pieces.

Ooh, bonus. They had done such a good job raising me to be a behaved child that I wouldn't be able to keep dirty secrets. I was a compulsive liar in my elementary years while trying to fit in with the crowd. My parents trusted me so much that they'd never have expected the things I did. I became so guilt ridden that I ratted myself out, leading me to be honest now. I can't tell such lies without having the guilt tower over me, eager to eat me alive.

Luckily, the Host Club's good qualities overshadowed everything. I concluded my spiel without getting yelled at (and exactly when we arrived home too). She parked the car and told me her decision, my siblings gathering their things in the background to get inside our house.

"It looks like they're a good group of kids. You can hang out with them. Dad and I still have to look at the website on the business card though. Alright?"

"Alright," I said with a smile, opening my door.

"Hold on though," she said.

I waited. She took off her sunglasses and placed them in her case, smiling while looking into my brown eyes with sincerity.

"I'm proud of you. Good job." She held out her arms for a hug, which I gave her.

"Thanks," I said sheepishly, rubbing my neck with my freehand, "They all seem so nice Mom, but I think one doesn't even like me. Not that I'm dying to be his friend, but it just feels kind of weird trying to be friends with all of them since they're a bunch of cute boys."

The aforementioned boy was obviously Kyouya. My pride came creeping from where I hid it, whispering that such kindness was indignant with that insult. I reminded myself that while he may think that the upper class were better than everybody else, he still treated people with respect. Actions gave more proof than words.

She gave me a look that said "cute boy say what" before I scrambled out the car to feel the last drizzle of rain which had, sadly, come to an end. My siblings followed suit. We spun around and laughed in the rain.

The air smelt fresh and clean. I floundered in the cold outpour knowing that warmth was within arm's reach.

I pocketed my glasses. After picking out a thousand pins, my dark brown hair was released from its bun, tumbling down my back and just below my waist. I tore off my blazer to feel the rain on my arms and neck too.

Tilting my head back I relished the feel of dropping all formalities. Though school was comfortable, home was where my heart was. I could use both extensive vocabulary and nearly incomprehensible slang. I could sing off-key and dance around my room and walk around in frumpy sweaters and short shorts. I could lie down all day and not be bossed around by anyone (save for my parents). Hell, I could take out my phone whenever I wanted to.

Mom ushered us inside minutes later, instructing us to change clothes and do our homework before anything else.

We regrouped after changing into our pajamas to talk about how our days went. The meeting was held in Rin's room, which was right next to mine. Rin was sprawled out on her bed with Alicia. I hogged her sofa for two, making it a sofa for one by draping myself across it with my phone and pillow in tow. My brother was satisfied with his blanket and pillow on the floor. All of us were comfy and warm, each holding an electronic device of sorts to keep us fully occupied.

" **Dang it!** " Corinne yelled, face-pillowing and putting her phone down. Her muffled voice said something along the lines of " **I was about to eat my enemies' remains and I died.** "

I raised a brow from where I sat listening to Oh Wonder's song "Lose It". It was a song I usually listened to before bed, but today was grey. Perfect for mellow songs.

" **You're playing , aren't you?** " I said. It was some addictive game that allowed you to consume the remains of your opponents to grow in size.

" **Yeah,** " all three of my siblings chorused. Rin raised her head and continued her game.

" **Licia, how was your day?** " Keano asked.

"Mm. . .I met lots of new friends. . .my teacher is super nice," she began in Japanese. She was absorbed in whatever Youtube video was playing on the ipad so her words came slow.

"Licia can you say it in English please?" Corinne asked. Alicia learned more English faster than we did at her age because of how increasingly widespread English media was becoming. That being said, we pushed her to use it whenever possible.

" **M-my teacher was super nice and I met a lot of new friends. We're learning all the same stuff we did in the other school. I had to correct them a lot because they kept calling me 'Areesha' and not 'Alicia'.** " She took out her earbuds and paused her video. Her face faltered, brown eyes downcast and lower lip beginning to quiver. " **But I miss my old friends.** "

Corinne put her arm around her. "It'll be okay, Licia. You got their numbers before we left though, right?"

Licia nodded, still in obvious distress. "I can use your guys' phones to call her sometimes, right?"

"Yeah," we all said the same time. Keano and Rin tried to add something at the same time and had to stop themselves.

"You go first," Rin said.

"No, it's okay. You go," Keano replied.

She shrugged and went on. " **The move was really, really sudden. I'm happy that Dad finally gets to retire and all. He deserves it and needs to get a whole lot of sleep. Mom's been wanting to get out of the house since forever, so that's a plus for us.** "

We all nodded, exchanging quick words of agreement too.

My dad retiring may seem odd, with him being only being forty six years old and all, but he has always been the working figure. I mean, Mom works hard and all at home, but she actually got to see us every day. For Dad, it wasn't uncommon for him to only come home when we were already in bed and leave home before we even got up for school.

My parents agreed that they would remain the stay-at-home-mom and working-father duo until Mom's shift as a nurse at the Tamaharu Hospital actually started. Then, Dad would quit his jobs and retire to the point of only working when he felt like it. Not out of obligation.

" **Our school is close to home, and Sade's school is close to some place I looked up that has small boutiques. We have our friends' contacts. . .but it still feels unreal. I miss my friends, and won't be able to see them often because even though they're close, we can't visit often because one, we have school, and two, Sade's the only one close to being old enough to take the train alone. Well, according to Mom and Dad's rules anyways. Three, even if she was old enough, we'd probably get l-** "

I gave her a death glare. She squinted and rolled her eyes then continued.

" **Lost. We'd probably get lost.** "

I mirrored her eye roll. Keano looked at me and chuckled. " **Sorry, Sade. We would. And I miss my friends too. We all do, Alicia. Right Sade?** "

My turn to be the nervous one. I shrugged. " **Yeah, sure.** "

Rin's jaw dropped. She switched back to Japanese. "You don't miss your friends?! At all?!"

I grimaced, pushing up my glasses. "Well. . .sorta, but not really. It's not that I don't like them or I've forgotten about them or anything. It's just that I figured that I can live without them. Besides, we can still chat over the phone."

" 'I figured that I can love without them'? Don't you think that's a kind of mean, Sade?" she asked.

I didn't hesitate. "I didn't say anything about not caring. When it comes down to it though, if any of them decided that we weren't friends anymore, I wouldn't trip. Kinda heartless, I know. But that's okay."

She scrunched up her face, wanting me to clarify.

"Okay, maybe I might be taking it too far. Maybe I'm being melodramatic. However, wouldn't you think that they deserve better if I'm acting this way? I'm fortunate to have friends like them, and their company is enjoyable, I just don't miss them that much. Should they find anything they want to talk to me about or rant about or fangirl over you know I'm there. Most of the time. On the phone  
My friends are the 'we don't talk much but I'm still there for you' type."

She rolled her eyes again, letting out a frustrated exhale. "I still don't understand how you distance yourself from people so easily. It doesn't hurt to have friends. You'd probably make better ones if you tried harder to care."

That hurt.

I itched to say something snarky back, but held my tongue. A moment of silence passed.

" **Eh, whatever,** " Keano said while resuming his game, " **your friends are your friends. Hopefully you like the new ones better.** "

"Yeah," I replied curtly.

What Corinne said was right. We had discussed this before, after all. She confirmed what another part of me of saying, which was that this wasn't exactly normal. Frankly, I wondered if I was even healthy, or maybe I was subconsciously faking it. To look cool or something. That wasn't true though. I was honestly feeling impartial. It wouldn't hurt to try harder to care though.

One of the worst things about it was how it led me to wonder whether that quality invalidated how much I care for others. Mayb I didn't truly care about people like that. But that was untrue as well...it had to be.

Additionally, Keano's remark held no venom, and yet it still made me feel guilt. Lightly. I love my friends. I love when we get all excited over the most stupid things. Was it really that bad that I didn't really want to initiate text conversations or go out to visit them often? I was fine if they were here and fine if they weren't.

While spiraling into a black hole of existential of crisis my siblings continued to do whatever they were doing. I blinked several times, removing my glasses and putting my playlist on shuffle to clear my mind. I wanted to dismiss all of it. The (over) thinking. The guilt.

I could accept the apathy. I could convince myself that it didn't undermine my sentiments at all. I could force myself to interact more, but even I knew that good friends didn't have to talk everyday. Interaction via electronics wasn't always the most graceful, but at least things would still be the same when we friends met in person.

I think.

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **Nggh**

 **I feel like I info-bombed you guys and that some people might have trouble remembering who is who when it comes to the smol (more like tol, Rin's taller than Sade XD) Tanielu babies. (I promise you that they're not only appearing just once, they're there for reasons.)**

 **I'd like to know if anybody has any tips on fleshing out more than one character at once. I also advise you to brush up on the Ouran anime's side characters, as a few of them will be making their debuts in this book.**

 **Other than that, make sure to give no mercy if you think any thing can be improved! Whether I take in your suggestion or not, I implore you to give your (respectfully) honest opinion on how I can make my work better.**

 **Stay hydrated and smile often (or not. . .if you don't feel like it).**

 **I'm out!**

 **~Nua**


	7. Ch6

**(A/N): Here's some new vocabulary for you: pe'a. Pronounced (peh-ah). It's a traditional Samoan tattoo for men. Samoan women receive a malu (mah-loo). An example of a pe'a is pictured above.**

 **Carry on.**

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **[Sade POV]**

I watched Corinne's middle school shrink into nothing from my seat in the middle row of the car. Now, I was the only one who needed to be dropped off; all my siblings were at school.

Time was wasting away. I needed to get this out before my parents dropped me off, which would be in approximately ten minutes. If I waited until a later time to tell Dad I was planning on befriending the Host Club, two things could (and probably would) happen.

Firstly, he might get upset because I hadn't gotten his approval. The fact that I hid it in the first place would make the Host Club look even more suspicious than before.

Secondly, I didn't want to get too attached to that bunch because in the worst case scenario, both parents would have me cut them off.

Still, even if I had most of my evidence ready for fire, the thought of explaining my relations with them to Dad made me cringe-and it wasn't because he was six foot three and built beefy as all hell either.

He came home a half hour past midnight last night after concluding a twelve hour shift (not counting the hours he took to drive home and back). He had four more shifts to go until next Monday, when Mom started work. Until said day, he was bound to his job as a security squad leader in high-profile events for various aristocrats, brands, and companies.

It's heart breaking to see him come home from shifts as long as those. His eyes are red from functioning off of only three to four hours of sleep. He walks slowly not only because he's tired, but because his feet hurt from being on his feet for so long.

Dad speaks very gently, trying to be as patient as he always is, even if he's barely awake. Though, if one of us (my siblings and me) does something stupid like disrespect or disobey him, he is quicker to anger than usual.

I could only push so much about the Host Club before using up whatever amount of energy he had left. As I have triggered said reaction before, I already know it crushes his heart when his squadron obeys him more than his own children-the very people he works his ass off for.

If he popped off and started yelling, I'll know that I've 'done f*cked up,' so to speak. Ten times that if he started cursing. He never cursed.

I sat up straight, recalling my battle plan: make small talk, turn the conversation on me, highlight the Host Club's good features and skim over their bad. . .and skip the parts that weren't _super_ necessary.

Might as well hit the website on their business card too, just like Mom said yesterday.

"Hey, Dad?" I asked him in English, tightening my tie. I fiddled with large diamond studs on my ears.

"Yes?" he answered back in the same manner. He was sitting in the passenger seat wearing sunglasses, a North Face black raincoat, black shorts and an earpiece.

"Who did you guard yesterday? Did they make you cover your pe'a?"

"Again with that question?" Mom laughed from the driver's seat.

"Yes," I said firmly, "it's important."

He and Mom laughed.

Despite the fact that I was rushing to get the proverbial cat out of the bag, the latter question was an important one. I had always asked it after finding out the social stigma that came with bearing a tattoo of ANY kind in Japan.

Tattoos, generally speaking, are associated with the yakuza, organized crime syndicates of Japan. In all my fourteen years, I was yet to discover a teacher who clarified the difference between yakuza, fashion, and cultural tattoos. It resulted in widespread ignorance from many Japanese people.

There were many times in which I had seethed in silence when my father was required to put a bandage or a long-sleeve shirt over our culture. However, he had taught me to be gracious because it wasn't their fault.

Dad looked back at me, amusement gracing his features. "The CEO of a medical equipment company. He owns a line of hospitals. And no, I wasn't required to cover them up this time. "

I let out a breath of relief. "Good."

"So," he said, "do you any idea what hospital line I'm talking about?"

I furrowed my brow trying to wrack my brain for which hospital he was referring to.

"You mean. . .the. . .uh. . ."

It started with an 'O', I knew that. An image Kyouya in profile view flashed in my mind, confusing me. Why would that even matter to m-

It was the school bag, hanging from his desk. Its gold nameplate read "Otori Kyouya" in black lettering.

His connection to Yoshio hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Otori," Dad supplied. "Otori Yoshio, Chief Executive Officer of Otori and C **o.** "

"I thought Mom going to work for Tamaharu hospital?" I inquired.

"That's the hospital that used to cover us, De-de," Mom corrected. "I was hired by this one. They pay me more. And we get more coverage from this. If something ever happens to us, God forbid, our insurance would cover most of it."

"Oh," I said, feigning interest. "You really scored this time, Dad. Nice job."

"Thank you, baby," Dad replied, smiling fondly.

Otori, hm? Using his name could be useful, if handled with care. It could go both ways: lessen his fury because it was his _client's_ (and a well-paying one at that) son in the Host Club or set him off because it was his _client's son in the Host Club._ It didn't really help that he wasn't too fond of me.

"What kind of event was it?" I asked.

"It was for a press conference where Yoshio addressed some controversy regarding the ownership of his company. Apparently, the Grand Tonnere firm from France was rumoured to have plans for buying Otori and Co. out from under him. In particular, it was held for the purpose of taking down that rumour, as well as giving praise to some anonymous student investor labeled as K.O., who bought the company before Grand Tonnere could get to it, and gave all the rights back to Yoshio."

"A student investor bought the company?!" I exclaimed, "The medical field is a wealthy industry, so buying any medical company is no easy feat. I can't imagine how any one person, let alone a student, could possibly accumulate enough money to do that."

Honestly, I didn't know much about financial or business matters. I knew that I was probably right in my assumptions, at least.

Dad shrugged. "Who knows. Your school is filled with aristocratic kids, right? Any one kid could have been rich enough to do that. Who can say if it was one individual though? It could have been one group going under one name to avoid suspicion."

"Hm. I think that's a good strategy. Though, I have a feeling that the person who did this didn't do it out of the goodness of their heart. I mean, like I said, it was probably really expensive to carry out, so there had to have been some type of other reason, an alterior motive, you know? Maybe there's some benefits to it, like money or future company collaborations, in case this is the kid of someone with a parent who can benefit from it."

He nodded. "Good thinking. I agree completely." He chuckled. "Are you sure you don't want to be a detective or something?"

I shrugged. "Don't know yet. Everything seems interesting."

"You'll figure it out," he replied.

"Yeah," I agreed. Now was the perfect opening to talk about the Host Club. "Anyways, back the subject at hand. Did you guard his family too?" I inquired.

"Yes. His wife and his youngest son."

"Was he, as in his son, respectful to you?"

"We didn't talk, really. He came later in the day, after his school was dismissed. He was like his father: calm and stern faced. He put on a smile every now and then, but I could tell that it was just for the cameras." He looked curious. "What makes you ask?"

"I think I might've met him at school yesterday," I said casually. The next part was laced with feigned innocence so the controversial bits wouldn't seem so calculated. "His name is Kyouya, right? Kyouya Otori?"

He nodded. "Yes. That was it. Kyouya. Did you actually talk to him later?"

"Yes, but not very much. He's not too fond of me."

Dad turned himself further so he could face me. He pulled his sunglasses a little farther down his nose so I could see his eyes glinting as he shifted into protective father mode. "Why?"

Mom glanced briefly at the rear view mirror, probably observing my expression.

"We had a disagreement, but in the end, I think I made friends with his friends. You mind if I told you the longer version?"

His expression hardened with suspicion. "Go on."

"I was lost and couldn't find the Chairman's office. I tried to get help from some girl, but was interrupted by a Host Club. They didn't talk to me, well, not at first anyway."

His eyes narrowed at the words 'Host Club'. Mom stiffened.

In this battle, I wasn't quite sure whose side she was on: mine or Dad's. Yesterday it seemed like she was okay with the Host Club and my explanations. However, she might shift to Dad's side if she felt like it.

My reply was vague, but specific enough to be honest. I spoke hoping that I was fast enough to not leave any room for him to interrupt me. "I was about to ditch them when one member approached me and kinda got a little too close. He went out of my space when I asked him to, and apologized and we kinda talked and his friends-"

Dad went rigid, alerting me that my efforts were failing. His brown, work reddened eyes studied me sterner than before, as if he could see the rest of the story play out in my head. "Wait, wait, wait. Did he say anything to you before apologizing?" he interrupted.

Masking my panic became harder with him giving me a death stare like that. It wasn't because he was angry at me, but angry at the possibility of me getting harassed by some dude.

I shrugged, lightly. "I don't remember exactly what he said. Something about my face looking nice and how I was a new student." I glossed over the fact that Tamaki's first comment to me was about how my freaking lips reminded him of a rose.

He relaxed his shoulders, slightly. "What kind of close? How close?"

"Like, to my face," I turned to the side and put my palm out about four inches from my nose. I dreaded this part because I had to be specific.

"He tried holding my hands, like this," I used my left hand to cup my right hand, which was in a fist, then quickly returned to neutral position with my hands folded in my lap. Again, I rushed to let out my explanation. "But he stepped back as soon as I asked him to. He was literally there for less than ten seconds."

His nostrils flared and his eyes widened. He was about to speak through bared teeth.

"Dad, please, he got out of my space as soon as I asked him to and was respectful the whole time after that, I swear."

I may have looked in control on the outside, but I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off on the inside. If he was going to flip tables when I hadn't even talked about Kyouya's commentary yet, then we were going to have a problem.

He took a deep breath through his nose and calmed down. "You're not allowed to be near them anym-"

"Babe," Mom intervened, resting a hand on his left arm. "Let her speak. She got through it, they worked it out. Let her speak."

Protest crossed his features, but he cast it away and surrendered with a sigh, waiting for me to continue.

"Uh, thanks. Guys. Anyways, he was actually introducing himself, Tamaki Suoh, when one of his friends, Kyouya, interrupted. He introduced himself and seemed nice enough until he made a weird comment about how the school-" I put up air quotations with my fingers "-'doesn't get many people like me' which, of course, confused me because the hoity-toity tone to his voice. I asked what he meant, and his friends said stuff about me being 'poor' and 'a commoner', but it was weird because it didn't _sound_ like they were trying to insult me.

"I respectfully asked them to stop that, but Kyouya backed them up about how commoner wasn't such a degrading word. I told him it was. He said that even if I was right, the school was built for rich people, AKA the higher class, anyways. That pissed me off even more, so I told him about how our social and financial status gaps don't matter when we're on school grounds because all students are equal. I walked away, found the Chairman, and without knowledge of my rocky first impression with them, he assigned four out of the seven the hosts to be my class guides for time being.

"Kyouya took me to English class without saying anything. The other hosts took the time to approach me later and apologize. In fact, one of the third years, Honey-senpai, who looks like he hasn't had a growth spurt since fifth grade, gave me chocolates. By the end of the day I was either potential friends with or acquainted with every host besides Kyouya. I went to see them after school to give Honey-senpai a few cookies from my lunch, since the the apology was all I had wanted. Tamaki, the guy from earlier who learned to respect my space, walked me outside to make sure I didn't get lost or wet and ended up talking to Mom."

Dad quietly took in my story, staring at me as he did so. His eyebrows knit together in contemplation.

"Also," Mom added, speeding up with the Ouran Academy in sight, "the boy who came out with her was the Chairman's son. He seemed like a nice kid. He gave me this."

She leaned over and reached into her big black Michael Kors purse, pulling out the Host Club's business card. Dad plucked it from between her pointer and middle finger to examine it.

Yes. I could already see his defensive walls crumbling. I'd be out of the car with a stamp of approval in no time.

"Ouran High School Host Club. President, Tamaki Suoh. Vice President, Kyouya Otori. Their motto is 'we strive to make every girl happy'." He shot me a look that said "excuse me, what?"

I chuckled, trying to diffuse the tension further. "I know. Weird, right? Even though I did visit them yesterday, I didn't actually _see_ them hosting. I don't want to anyways. It's a free service, but I'm not interested regardless. I don't like the idea of false romance, it seems kind of stupid. I'm probably not allowed to request one anyway, am I?"

Both parents replied. "No."

Dad spoke so that I knew the message was serious, but he was still just playing with me. "I'll be damned before I ever let any daughter of mine into a host club. Hell no. I'll break their necks."

I gave him a wry smile. "But they're blue bloods, Dad. How are you going to pay for that?"

He shrugged with a devious look about him. "I'm not. I'd be going to jail."

Mom and I laughed. I stole a glance at the business card, mentally noting their website name.

"Oh yeah, Dad, I nearly forgot something. You should probably check out the website for more information," I pulled his phone from the center console and punched in the code, immediately searching for their website on Google Chrome. "The first year student guides told me that they're kind of educational when it comes to cosplay. I'm not trying to get into the club or anything, I just wanna let you know more about what they do in case you find out anything you don't like later."

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, using his other hand to wave me away. "No, no I don't want to know, Sade. I trust you and your decisions, I don't need to see everything."

"No," I replied, "I don't wanna get yelled at if you ever think I'm hiding something. It's best to just take care of it now."

He groaned and took back his phone when I handed it to him. I leaned as far as my seat belt allowed me so I could look over his shoulder as he scrolled.

The home page was pink. It had a group picture of the Host Club standing around Tamaki, who was sitting in a chair. Probably an general information page, since Dad skimmed it too fast for me to catch up.

He checked other headings like 'Event Calendar', 'Host Biographies', 'Past Cosplays', and 'fundraisers'.

"What the hell?" he said, turning to Mom on the fundraiser page. "Babe, they're selling their belongings for ungodly prices. Who on earth bought a used hairbrush from Timaki Suto?!"

Mom laughed. "I don't know. Maybe I should try selling my toothbrush."

We all laughed.

"So," Mom said, nudging him with her elbow, "is she allowed to hang out with them during non-club hours? She really likes them, and it's good for her because there's a bunch of hosts from her grade level in most of her classes. They can help her, if she ever needs it."

He flinched as if she had knocked him in the head. "Please don't refer to them as hosts. Just. . .kids. It's bad enough that there's more than one of them anyways." He turned so that he was facing both of us. "Listen, I'm fine with you hanging out with them, but you aren't allowed to see them during club hours, okay?"

I shrugged. "Fine with me."

I lingered over his shoulder while he tapped the last heading, 'Photo Gallery'. He scrolled down, eyes nearly bulging out of his head at what he saw.

I felt my heart lodge in my throat, felt my chances slip into oblivion the moment the page finished loading.

Surrounded by photo-shopped backgrounds of glittering roses were pictures of the hosts, shirtless and posing.

Clearly, they weren't just photographed like that to look 'cute'. They, a bunch of floundering minors, were trying to look _seductive._

As predicted, Dad scrolled at lightning speed past Tamaki and Kyouya at physical exams, Tamaki at the beach, and even Haruhi feigning an innocent look while draped in linen. His bloodshot eyes twitched with fury and confusion, lips curling back in disgust.

"What the fuck is this?!" he bellowed. His voice boomed loud in such close proximity, causing me to flinch.

I withdrew to my seat crowded with thoughts that bounced like light off of mirrors, blinding and unstoppable. I felt the air thicken with my panic and his rage. I was dead, the Host Club was dead, we were dead, both my parents were going to flip shit (and possibly me), I wouldn't be allowed to socialize with a guy for a million and one years.

"Dad, I can explain-"

His head swiveled back like an owl. "Did you know about this?!"

"What?! No, no, no! O-of course not!" I blurted out while nodding my head side to side vigorously. I spoke inhumanly fast. "I swear to God, Dad, I hadn't even looked at the website until now!"

"What?!" Mom exclaimed, "What's wrong?!"

"Judy, they're posing on this god damn website like they're some grown ass men!"

"They still have pants on-"

Mom pulled into the drop off lane. "What?!" She tore off her sunglasses and leaned to look at Dad's phone, her face mirroring his incredulous disgust.

"Sade Taimane Tanielu," Dad said, voice low with rage, "you are not to talk to these people ever again do you understand me?"

The most rational, routine part of me told me to nod my head and say, "Yes, Dad." but for some reason, the words just wouldn't come out of my mouth. I clenched my teeth behind my closed lips, which trembled threatening to betray me and surrender to my father's words.

What on earth was I doing? Why wasn't I letting go? Why wouldn't I listen?

Dad was probably right. It wouldn't be that hard to cut myself off from them, anyway. We had never developed anything strong enough to break in the first place, and I could already see myself months from now, graduating tenth grade wondering why I ever made such a big deal about them.

"Sade." Dad said curtly, expecting my obedient reply.

They couldn't possibly be as bad as this made them look.

I remembered that Kyouya was probably seething with irritation yesterday and yet he still had the decency to hold his tongue and not bother me. I remembered Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai being the first to apologize. How fast the twins were to befriend me, and how they didn't really _need_ to apologize to get me to like them. How oddly easy it was to carry a conversation with Haruhi. How Tamaki remembered to stay out of my space and was willing to walk me outside.

Although, ultimately, his stupidity in giving Mom his business card was probably the death of our friendship anyways.

I blinked, imagining putting a thick wall of stone between me and them. I was feeling too much.

My lips parted, about to dutifully reply when my sister's words from the previous evening came slithering into my thoughts.

 _I still don't understand how you distance yourself from people so easily. It doesn't hurt to have friends. You'd probably make better ones if you tried harder to care._

I couldn't stop myself. The wall broke.

"No, Dad. I'm sorry."

Mom parked the car, giving us a maximum of one minute before the limousines behind us would start honking. Both she and Dad turned around as if I had cursed at them.

"Excuse me?" Mom said. "I'm going to give you one chance to fix your answer, Sade."

"No," I said firmly. My expression didn't match the assertion in my words. Even _I_ was confused with what I was saying.

Dad bared his teeth, "Young lady-"

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry, but I just don't think that they're bad people. I mean, the pictures are bad, I understand that, but they acted differently in real life. They're courteous and respectfu-"

"Are you seriously going to interrupt me?" Dad shouted. "Are you blind? They're-"

Fear seeped through my moment of audacity, but I kept going. "Dad, please, let me explain,"

"NO!" he hollered. I flinched back as if the word had hit me. His voice was back to a low volume. "There is no explaining to be done, Sade, because you are going to listen to me. I am calling the principal, assigning you new escorts, you're not sitting anywhere near them in your classes-"

"Dad, please-"

"There were pictures of two brothers that were not looking at each other in a way that brothers never should, Sade. Do you honestly think that your mother and I raised you to hang out with a bunch of asscracks like that?!" His voice rose, and he craned his neck to the point where I could feel spittle on my face when he spoke. "I don't give a rat's ass what you think of them. You're not going anywhere near those damn morons."

Desperation clouded me."Dad, you can't do this! They're the first friends that I've made this year, jus give them a chance, trust me on thi-"

His bloodshot eyes widened, nostrils flared, and lips curled back to reveal his teeth. His voice rose to the highest volume so far.

"Who the hell do you think you're raising your voice at?!"

He raised his hand like he was going to slap me. I shrank back even farther, terrified. My breaths were shallow, my heart rate sky rocketed, my teeth clenched as brace for impact.

"I am not working my fucking ass off every god damn day for you to be fooling around with guys like those. You are a child, Sade, and you live under my roof, so you are going to listen to me. You are there for school, not no two-faced boyfriend, do you understand me? You'd have to break every bone in my body before any one of my daughters ever hangs around a boy like that, Sade, I will _kill_ them all. I shit you not. Are you seriously going to disrespect me for some lil' boys you met at school, Sade? Do they feed you? Do they clothe you? Did they wipe your ass when you were a baby? Huh? HUH?!"

He was so horribly wrong that my fear receded. That was sexist. That was invalidating. Of course I understood how hard he worked. What I didn't understand was how he had assumed that I had a crush on any one of them, and even worse, how he ever thought that a boy could or would interfere with my learning experience. I had had multiple crushes before this that took over my mind for weeks and I _still_ got straight A's. Where the hell was this coming from?

Did he really think so low of me that I would break a lifelong bond with him to be a wannabe rebel with some random boy? I had just wanted a few fucking friends.

I gathered the last of my courage into one deep breath, my quiet voice breaking on the verge of tears. "You're wrong. It's not because of that. I'm stronger than that. Why would you think tha-"

He slapped me in the face. Hard.

My glasses hung off my right ear. The left side of my face stung, then grew hot. A tear from each eye welled up and fell, much like my "courage" earlier. I bit my lower lip to keep it from trembling.

"You will not go near them," he said in a calmly.

I tried to recall the last time he had ever hit me. Ninth grade? Eighth grade? When was the last time that I had ever made him so damn angry?

"Hugo!" my mother intervened. "She cannot go to school crying like that! You should have waited until after school to talk about this!"

They exchanged a few more words, but I didn't hear it. I leaned forward to hide my side of the door, using my left hand to gingerly put my glasses as they should've been while sliding my right hand over my car door. I snatched my backpack from the floor as loud as possible, using the noise as a cover while I unlocked the door.

Without words, I pulled the handle, opened the door, and hauled my backpack over shoulder while using the grip on the car's ceiling to swing myself outside. Both parents tried to tell me to stay in the car, but I slammed the door.

Slamming doors was not something we did in my family. Especially not on parents.

I hopped onto the sidewalk as quickly as humanly possible. I didn't look back. I only looked around, vehemently, trying to find an escape and observing how many people saw me exit the car in such a hurried fashion.

My parents' shouts were muffled, as they dared not open the windows (let alone the car doors). Their howling fell deaf on my ears as I shakingly approached the entrance that Tamaki had lead me through yesterday. Through the glass door, I could see that the entire area was crowded.

The cellphone in my pocket rang. I already knew it was one of my parents. I ignored it.

My sniveling breaths would not slow. I couldn't open my mouth already knowing a pitiful, voice-cracking cry would escape me. I blinked rapidly to keep more tears from falling.

A scope side to side revealed to me that the sides of the school were held up by large, pink pillars. That one phone call snow balled into four more, consecutively, while I traipsed away.

When I got a few meters closer I noticed with relief that the green grass beyond them was not dotted with spots of yellow or powder blue. Nobody was there.

I was far enough from the drop off area that nobody could see me. After all, I was at that view point seconds ago. With one last inspection in front and behind I dashed to find solace behind a pillar. The shadow the morning sun cast was perfect for shrouding myself in.

Immediately, I wondered what to do with these cursed tears. Hide them? Shed them? My face would be red from it later on, but if I hid them they might emerge later. I already knew it wasn't healthy to hide them.

I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to wave people away later and commenced in my sob fest. I anchored my back against the stone cold pillar behind me and slid into a sitting position.

Crying is not weak, I told myself. Crying is human. Emotion is human.

I tore off my glasses, relishing in the streams of tears that raced down my cheeks, pooled at my jaw line, and fell to their doom on the cement. I sniffled. My face scrunched up, and I could taste the salt of tears. Being hunched over like this, I noticed my white v-neck shirt already becoming soaked.

Again, the phone in my pocket buzzed. Shortly though, because it was a text. I growled as I seized it from my black suit jacket's pocket. It was a text from Mom.

 _We're talking after school. I'm cancelling ur haircut appointment. You're being super disrespectful. That attitude better b fixed by the time u come home._

Anger welled in my throat. I shrieked, only to clamp a hand over my mouth. Even though I observed that 'nobody' was here, one could never be too careful. I covered my mouth with both hands, forcing the tears and the puny animal noises that came with them, trying to get this over with.

I already knew what they would do after school. They'd probably expect me to forgive them. They would either be nice to me like nothing ever happened, or give me an apology that started with something along the lines of 'we're sorry, but. . .'.

And I already knew what I would do. I would hate their actions, hate that they didn't give me a legitimate apology. Hate that they didn't even think they EVER owed me an apology, or respect, because they 'worked too hard for that'. And then, I would surrender. I would begrudgingly forgive them knowing that they would guilt trip me if I didn't.

That was how it always went with arguments like these. Slapped or not. They were always my number one fans, my coaches, my medics, but not when they were the ones on the opposite side of the ring.

If my memory wasn't so crappy, I would probably be able to count on my fingers the amount of times that I had ever won an argument, or received a true apology.

While I continued to cry I searched for a tissue in my backpack. My hand grazed a small piece of paper that felt like card stock. I pulled it out. It was the Host Club's business card.

One of the Hosts probably slipped one into my bag while I wasn't looking. My breath hitched as I skimmed over the card. The moment I read Kyouya's contact I remembered that he had been assigned as my first period guide. If I didn't find him now I was going to make him late to class. Then again, texting him meant giving him my number-something I couldn't take back.

But I didn't want to be late either.

I cursed like a sailor at the time on displayed on my phone: 8:27A.M. The bell gave us five minutes after 8:30A.M. to go to class, but it would probably take me forever and a day to meet him if he asked me to. He was my best bet to get to class, but I didn't want to ask him for help.

Then again, I didn't want to ask anybody else for help either.

Fuck it.

I used the number on the card to send him a text.

 _This is Sade Tanielu, from English Class. Somebody slipped the Host Club's business card into my bag, which is why I have your number. Don't bother trying to find me. I'll go to class on my own and delete your number from my phone. Thank you for your time and have a nice day._

I physically facepalmed for saying 'have a nice day', but I supposed courtesy never hurt anybody. Ironically enough, I put the card back into my bag and ended up finding the damn tissue. I allowed myself the remaining three minutes to hold my pity party and then cleaned up.

After wiping my face dry, putting on my backpack, and buttoning my jacket to hide the tear stains, I took a deep breath and blocked out all of my emotions. I ran a hand over the fly away hairs in my side fishtail braid, then set off for the front desk to ask for directions and a copy of the school map.

When I looked back at my phone, I saw that Kyouya was already working on a reply.

How courteous.

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **(A/N):**

 **HELLLOOOOOOOOO MY LITTLE WARRIORS (FIGHTING THROUGH MY HIATUS WITH MEH)**

 **THANK YOU FOR 1.2K VIIIIIIIIEEEWWWSSSS!**

 **This chapter was highly amusing to write. Very tension filled, but I assure you that Hugo and Judy aren't always like that. Most of the time, they and De-de are just peachy.**

 **Things are finally moving along! (I know, I'm squealing too.)**

 **Again, as always, I'd appreciate constructive criticism if you have any. My skin is thick.**

 **My darling child, Sade, isn't quite petite Average size top half, bit of a belly, and a big butt. Her thighs are thick. Not plus sized though (even though plus sized, like every other size and shape under the human spectrum, is beautiful).**

 **If I went with a random number here, I'd say she's about 160 pounds (72.5 kg).**

 **And yes, she does have acne all over her face, but it's mild. Makes her cheeks slightly red. The acne itself isn't cystic and big. It's just smaller pimples that are for the most part skin tone, rather than blackheads and whiteheads. (My poor baby is an slightly oily teen).**

 **AHHHHH I so badly want to give you guys an in-depth character description, but I don't want to info dump you. So ask if you have any general questions about my darling girl.**

 **Questions I have for you:**

 **How did you feel while reading this?**

 **Do you have any predictions for her future?**

 **Should Kyouya or the whole Host Club ever even find her? (How would they react if so?)**

 **Was this chapter too long?**

 **Have you spotted any foreshadowing in the seven existing chapters? (Careful, I'm pretty sure I put in some decoys too)**

 **Do you like the latest cover?**

 **Have any other questions about the story? (Or suggestions, though I can't guarantee I'll follow them)**

 **(More questions shall be added later~)**

 **It is my firm belief that updates will now come much faster, now that I've dropped one of my two AP classes. *squee***

 **I loooooooveee you guyyyys!**

 **Fa'afetai! ['Thank you' in Samoan].**

 **Peace out mah lovelies!**

 **~Nua**


	8. Ch7

**(A/N): Don't be alarmed by the way I am using third person POV for this chapter, please. Think of the narrator as a camera that can seamlessly pan in and out on characters. If I did a separate chapter for scene switches I'm pretty sure we'd all get annoyed.**

 **Carry on.**

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **[Third Person POV]**

"Kyouyaaaa!"

"I said no."

The twins groaned from their couch near the big window.

"Boss," they chorused, "we know we said that we'd try to be more open to your plans after the Ouran Fair, but this is getting kind of annoying. Can you please just wait like Kyouya-senpai asked?"

"But-"

Kyouya pushed up his glasses and sighed, taking a break from staring at his computer screen to shoot Tamaki a stern look. Haruhi silently thanked God for his authority, since trying to study with her senpai's background noise was a hassle.

"Tamaki, this is the fifth time you've asked me to go and get her in the past ten minutes. It's only eight-o-three, and I'm not waiting twenty seven minutes for a girl who already has our contacts when I could be here, being productive."

Tamaki's whining face began transitioning into the puppy dog look. Kyouya went back to typing at the speed of light.

"We can't even guarantee that she has our cards!" he wailed, holding his crying face like a toddler, "what if her parents lost the one I gave them or she didn't find the one Honey-senpai put in her bag!"

"If you want to welcome her to her second day of school so badly, then go downstairs and see your father to make arrangements for _you_ to be her first period guide instead. It would make my future mornings much easier to not have to drag around her dead weight until she memorizes her way."

Tamaki gasped at the way his own best friend talked about their newest princess, which gave Kyouya more leverage.

He spoke with an airy tone about him. "That's right. If you keep bothering me about Sade then I'm going to treat her even more-" he put up air quotations with his free hand while writing notes in his little black book with the other hand "-ungentlemanly."

Tamaki turned whiter than before. "You wouldn't!"

"I won't even bother walking at a pace she can keep up with. She'll have to run to catch up with me for all I care, and on top of that I won't even hold the door open for her." He paused for dramatic effect. "Just like yesterday."

Tamaki made choking noises, clutched his chest, then collapsed into a heap on the floor. "You. . .animal. . .cruel. . .beast. . .most. . .disgraceful. . .host. . .in. . .history. . ." he wheezed.

The corners of Kyouya's mouth lifted for half a second in victory then pressed back into a line while he death glared their near empty bank account. Patching the idiot sized hole that Tamaki made in the club's funds after the Ouran Fair was going to be a difficult task.

That being said, he already had a few money-making plans in tow. Picture book sales went swimmingly yesterday. He updated the Photo Gallery on the Host Club's official website with a few more "Lovely Photos" before arriving at school that morning. At the moment, he was checking the traffic the website was receiving and how the photos he posted affected the profits on the fundraising page.

"Kyouya?" Tamaki squeaked while still on the floor.

"If this is about I won't talk to you until after school."

He ignored him. "What are you doing right now?"

Kyouya raised a brow at him. "Trying to make more money. Why do you a-"

He couldn't even finish his sentence before Tamaki sprang up and into his face. "Oohhhh, so it's money you're worried about! Well then, I have a deal to make. If you invest yourself whole heartedly in 'Operation Win Over Sade Tanielu' then I shall cancel cosplays this week and the next in exchange for staying in our uniforms."

Kyouya's brow creased, signaling an incoming snarky response.

"And, I shall refrain from buying truckloads of fresh rose petals for garnishment every week for twelve weeks!" He put out a hand, sure that Kyouya would take it.

Kyouya looked skeptically at the outstretched palm and then took it. "Fine. I'm revising the rose part though. You may purchase more until summer ends, so they're less expensive. Having fresh ones shipped from other countries in the winter is more costly than you think."

"Deal!" he said happily. He pivoted and marched toward the door. Kyouya gathered his black book and a ballpoint pen before following suit. The twins gave him a little wave.

"Bye!" Honey said.

"See ya later," Haruhi said.

"Bye." Mori said.

Kyouya nodded at them and then went out.

He allowed Tamaki two minutes of happily humming until they got to the stairs.

"Tamaki," he said.

"Yeeees?" Tamaki said with glee.

"If she's not here by eight twenty, then we're going back upstairs until she contacts us."

"What?!"

"No objections, or I walk back upstairs right now."

Tamaki shut his mouth, pouting at a contented, money saving Kyouya.

Meanwhile, the rest of the club minded their own business until eight twenty one came around and they grew bored with the companionable silence.

"Honey-senpai?" Kaoru said, still staring out the window. He rested his right arm on the armrest since the cast he got to match Hikaru's was getting bothersome. He thought the rose labyrinth looked especially dark with the large pink pillars casting shadows over it.

"Yes, Kao-chan?"

"When did you slip the business card into Sade's bag? You stayed in your spot the whole time we ate the cookies she gave us together."

Hikaru blinked, realizing that his brother was correct. "Come to think of it, we didn't see you at all yesterday during school hours, besides when you gave her those chocolates."

Honey gave them the best closed mouth smile that he could, as he did save a few of Sade's sister's cookies for the next day and had stuffed all six of them into his chipmunk cheeks.

"Well," Haruhi speculated, "maybe he put the card in the chocolate box."

Hikaru shrugged. "Sounds possible."

"Actually," Honey said after finishing his cookies, then burst into giggles. "I used a special technique to run between tables at lunch and stuff it into her bag. Took me less than a minute! You guys made such good friends with her that she wasn't even paying attention to her bag when I did. Made my job easier!" He put a thumbs up with the hand that wasn't holding Usa-chan.

All three first year hosts looked at him with confusion.

"But how?" Haruhi said.

"It's a technique he's known for a while," Mori replied.

The first year hosts were more surprised at Mori talking than Honey's ninja skills.

"We practice a lot. Mitsukuni's better at it than I am, since he's so small, but I can still move silently despite my size." He pointed at the window. "We sometimes practice in the labyrinth near the columns."

The twins squinted at each other then out the window.

"That's really-" Kaoru began, but stopped. A figure speed walked into the bottom left corner of the window. "Hikaru do you see that?!"

"Yeah," Hikaru murmured. He got out of his seat and went to the window, shielded his eyes with his uninjured arm and squinted at said figure. "They're not wearing the Ouran uniform. . ."

The figure's head looked left, which was away from the window's direction, and walked faster. They appeared to be approaching the labyrinth.

"There's an intruder on campus?!" Honey asked, taking Mori's wrist and walking him to the window as well.

Haruhi got up out of curiosity, squishing herself between Hikaru and Honey. "Their clothes are too dark to see if it's a boy or a girl. . .but they're short, so they can't be an adult. . ."

The figure's hands were the only thing that showed their complexion, which was a darker than everybody else at the school's. Their hair was dark as well.

Hikaru breathed slowly, like being quiet while inside would help him hear something outside. "Who could that be. . .come on. . .just show your face already."

As if the intruder heard his request, their head swiveled right, allowing them to see the figure's large black framed glasses and lips pressed into a line.

"It's Sade," he said, "she's going the wrong way. . .what's she even doing? There's no one there."

They all crowded the window even closer.

"Maybe she's meeting someone behind the pillars," Honey suggested.

"Well she looks fairly unhappy doing it," Kaoru said.

"Isn't she supposed to be meeting with the Tamaki-senpai and Kyouya-senpai?" Haruhi asked.

They watched as Sade went back to looking straight ahead, then broke into a run until she got behind a pillar. The shadow it cast made it harder to see her. She flung her bag to the side, then anchored her back against the column behind her, sliding down into sitting position. Her chest heaved, showing that she was taking deep breaths.

"She looks like she's running from someone!" Honey exclaimed, taking a step back from the window. He might have to go downstairs and help her. Takashi was leaning away, about to run to the door. "I'm going to help her!"

He pivoted to leave with his cousin, but Haruhi stopped him.

"Senpai, wait!" her eyes were still glued to Sade. "Look," she said softer.

Sade tore the glasses off her face, revealing for less than a second the exasperated expression that one makes before they cry, then buried her face in her hands.

Less than a minute in the shadows' solace and her posture wilted like a flower without sun. Her shoulders wracked with cries that the window blocked.

Except, the window shouldn't have blocked them. Mori had already, without words, reached out and opened the window so they could hear what was going on.

She was crying silently.

"No," Honey said, eyes widening.

"She's. . ." Hikaru began.

". . .crying," Kaoru finished.

"That's it," Haruhi said, pulling out her phone and dialing, "I'm calling Kyouya-senpai. Something's up. They should have found her by now."

"Good idea," Kaoru said still focusing on Sade, "should I call Boss?"

"No. Just wait until I confirm whether they've separated to look for her," Haruhi replied. She put the phone on speaker mode.

They watched Sade lift her head to check her phone, her face red and breaths shallow. Her expression contorted with hurt and anger at whatever was on the screen. She screamed with anguish but clamped a hand over her mouth and returned to being a crumpled mess of sobs, finally allowing herself to cry fully, with sound.

The host club looked on in distress until Haruhi's phone stopped ringing and Kyouya finally answered.

"Hello-" he began.

"Kyouya-senpai, where are you?"

Sade leaned over and rummaged through her bag, still covering her mouth with her right hand.

"We're on our way back to the club room, why do-"

"Put me on speakerphone," she said calmly.

She heard him tap the screen. She watched Sade stare at the piece of paper she retrieved from her backpack.

"Hello?" said Tamaki.

"You guys haven't seen Sade, right?"

"No, we haven't," Tamaki replied, "because _someone_ insisted that we go back because she wasn't here on t-"

"You both need to go downstairs right now."

"What?!" Tamaki exclaimed. Kyouya was silent. "Wh-"

"We found Sade. She's outside crying her eyes out." Haruhi straightened out and motioned for the rest of the club to follow her out of the room. "Go out the main entrance and see if you can get to her. We'll be right there."

There was a ringing sound from Kyouya's end of the line. He got a text from an unknown number.

"What was that?" the twins said.

"Hold on," Kyouya replied, turning to strut in the other direction. Tamaki grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him along faster, the blond voicing his worries and suspicions at a mile a minute.

They listened to footfalls of the Host Club leaving the room at Haruhi's end of the line while Kyouya held the phone away from his face to check the text.

 _This is Sade Tanielu, from English Class. Somebody slipped the Host Club's business card into my bag, which is why I have your number. Don't bother trying to find me. I'll go to class on my own and delete your number from my phone. Thank you for your time and have a nice day._

He furrowed his brow.

"Everybody," he said to the phone. There was a collective 'yes' from both Tamaki and the members on the other end of the line. "Sade just texted me. She told me not to bother trying to find her, and that she'll go to class on her own. Do you still have an idea of where she is?"

Tamaki pulled Kyouya's arm a second time, successfully urging him into a light sprint. "The courtyard's too big to cross in two minutes. She'll still be near the main entrance if she moved at all."

He nodded. "I'll ask her."

Kyouya alternated between looking where he was running and his phone screen. He hit the send button when they reached the stairs leading to the glass entrance door. Most other students had already cleared the area to get a head start on their classes.

 _Where are you?_

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **(A/N)**

 **I don't like it when people break their promises. As a result, I will not promise specific times for updates any longer. (;'** **༎** **ຶ** **Д** **༎** **ຶ** **')**

 **What did you think of this chapter?**

 **No, I won't be alternating between this Point of View and Sade's (it'll come back when necessary), but regardless, what did you think of the way I handled this point of view? Constructive criticism is welcomed.**

 **Was everybody in character?**

 **Before any of you think otherwise:**

 **= Mori: Mori had more than a few words because he has a things to say when it comes to Honey. And it gets tiring to write nothing but "mm" and "he nodded" for this handsome devil.**

 **= Haruhi: She was the real OG (original gangster) so I gotta pay her some respect. She ain't no side chick that's fo damn sho.**

 **Even though I really shouldn't be saying this, I'd recommend that you brush up on the Ouran anime's side characters if you need to**.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)

 **As always, fa'afetai (thank you in Samoan) for reading. I look forward to your thoughts.**

 **Peace out mah lovelies!**

 **~ Nua**


	9. Ch8

**(A/N): YO! YOU ALREADY READ THIS CHAPTER? WELL (pretty please) READ IT AGAIN. I EDITED IT TODAY, NOVEMBER 19. A FEW CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE.**

 **The video above is your homework to watch. Personally, I love both the sub and dub (I watched the dub first, fight me), but I decided to go with whatever Funimation's YouTube channel had to offer. I also recommend brushing up on episodes 1, 14, and 19 as well.**

 **Additional homework includes giving out a moment of silence for those lost in 9/11.**

 **In case you're confused, Kyouya is in English 3 because his English comprehension skills are advanced compared to other second years.**

 **Carry on**

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 _Where are you?_

My screen didn't say anything different, even when I squinted. Did he not read what I said?

 _My location isn't relevant. I'll get to class, I assure you. You'd best be on your way so at least one of us gets to class on time._

I pressed send. Without missing a beat he had read it and was working on a reply. Hopefully a 'fine' or an 'okay'. I assumed that he was just trying to be nice here, but he didn't really seem like the Mother Teresa type.

Cruelty, I know.

I stood up straight so my weight was distributed evenly on both sides. I sniffled, still stuffy from crying.

 _No. I'll ask you again: where are you?_

Excuse me, what? He was either a nicer guy than I thought, or he had a few friends, be they Host Club or not, on his heels. It was probably the latter. (Though I scolded myself for such quick judgments, as he could still be an entirely different person than I had guessed).

If he was really set on finding me he would probably be moving around a lot. God forbid he was actually on my trail, I needed to take action quickly.

I decided to call him. He picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?" I said. My voice was still nasally.

"Where are you right now?" he asked, voice devoid of any urgency.

"I'll tell you again, Kyouya-senpai, my location isn't important. I ask that you please stop asking and go to class already." His name and that honorific felt weird to say, but I said them thinking they would influence him the slightest bit. People tend to pay more attention when their name is said.

"Are you sick? You sound congested."

Damnit. I didn't do a good enough job hiding that. I was about to say no when I heard a familiar voice in the background.

Tamaki. It was vague, but I could just barely hear him saying, "go check on her."

I furrowed my brow. Check on me? They knew where I was. Asking was just a formality. They knew exactly why I 'sounded congested.' I turned in a circle trying to spot them. "Who's with you right now?" I said, "Who else is listening?"

"Don't tell her-" Tamaki began.

"Tamaki and the rest of the Host Club," Kyouya said anyways. There came a collective groan from his end of the line. People muttered about his disobedience. He went on. "Just so you know, I'm not the one who came up with this little expedition. The Host Club simply wishes to ensure your well-being."

Well, he was being honest. I was torn between allowing them to give me the comfort I wanted and shooing them away. Realistically speaking, education comes before any and all matters possible, so getting as many of those morons back to class as I could was best, for now. I headed for the front entrance, holding the phone away from myself to sniffle before replying.

"Thank you for your honesty, Kyouya-senpai," I said in the most cordial tone possible, "however, I'd prefer that as many of you as possible would please go back to class. You're welcome to stick around, if you'd like, but it'd make my conscience much clearer to know that you all got to class on time. We can discuss my 'well-being' at lunch. I ask for directions from the front desk. What do you all say?"

Kyoya spoke. "You're not on speakerphone. Tamaki says that that's fine. Unanimously, they're all still worried for you, but have agreed to meet you at lunch. Do you need help getting there too?"

"Most likely, thanks for asking. Kaoru and Hikaru will probably guide me there when classes are over."

I turned around the corner, unable to see through the doors with the sun's glare.

"You guys are heading back now, right?" I asked.

"They left."

What an idiot.

"But what about you?" I asked.

"I stayed behind."

He hung up.

I opened the door to find him standing in the middle of the empty room, pocketing his cellphone.

For a split second, he stiffened, eyes widening and brow furrowing. It was quickly masked with his usual calmness and steady voice. "Do you need a tissue or anything of that sort?"

Even with that quick cover-up the look on his face made me painfully aware of how hard it was to even open my eyes. The puffiness had practically sealed them shut. They stung so much I could almost picture how red they were.

"No. Thank you." I crossed the floor and stood in front of him at a conversational distance. I bowed. This one was deeper and more respectful than the one in the office, which had sent unspoken messages of mutual distaste instead. "Thank you for your help." I said, righting myself.

He stared at me before bowing in reply, probably assessing me in some way. "You're welcome. This way, please." Kyouya turned away and motioned for me to follow, which I did. The person working the front desk ignored us completely.

"Um, Kyouya-senpai?"

"Hm?"

"I apologize if this comes across as rude, but why did you stay behind?"

"I have my reasons."

"Those being?" I pressed on, sniffling.

"Isn't it obvious? I was assigned to be your guide by the Chairman. His orders are to be taken seriously."

Briefly, I glanced at him as we turned a corner. Just doing his job, hm?

He continued. "If I had accepted the extra minute you offered, then had you come in only a few minutes after me in the state that you're in, it would make me look rude."

Kind of him to assume that I knew how to follow simple directions, but knowing me, I'd take _at least_ fifteen minutes to find my way.

If anything, the amount of time between his and my arrivals would've made it obvious that my tardiness was my fault.

"Good point. Thanks for doing your job," I said instead, deciding to ask another question. "Aren't I making you late though?"

He raised a brow when he replied. "You're welcome."He hastened his stride. "And no, you won't make me late. Not if you can keep up with me."

I smiled for a moment. "Okay."

Though we both faced ahead, I saw him glance at me sideways when I replied. Briefly, the corner of his mouth tugged into a satisfied half-smile. It made me feel a little warm and fuzzy to know that he cared. That him and his group of morons cared too.

A minute passed before he struck more conversation, regarding me with an expectant look. "So," he began, "just how much of the truth are you planning to reveal at lunch?"

My turn to raise a brow. "What do you mean?"

"The reason why you were crying."

"Oh. That," I replied, "well. . .um. . .as much as I feel you need to know, I guess."

"Right. I can respect that."

"Again, thanks." I exhaled, audibly, then shoved my hands into my pockets. "I have a feeling I'll be saying 'thanks' a lot today."

He gave me a 'what do you mean' sort of look.

"I mean there's a lot of people doing a lot of nice things for today. I have to express my gratitude, right?"

He nodded in agreement and glanced at the silver watch on his wrist as we turned the (millionth) hallway. "We'll reach class in due time. There's less than a minute left, and Miss Takaoji's class is this way. Fourth door down."

"Got it."

He opened the door, held it open for me to enter, then followed me in. The class was abuzz with students rushing to get their early morning stories out before the bell rang.

Some people instinctively looked our way, then back and minded their business. Most others eyed me with what was either concern or hunger for another conversation topic and then huddled in with their friends to chat more. (I was probably the topic, considering their lingering gazes and mouths obscured by hands).

A handful stared at me with pure worry, said people being primarily female, and looked back between the floor and me as if wondering if they should approach me. It was sweet of them.

was at her desk on a phone call. She took one look at me, said something that looked like an abrupt goodbye and then hung up before pulling a dozen tissues from the box on her desk and marching over to me.

"I was wondering where you two were!" she chastised, looking at me with saucer eyes then looking behind me to give Kyouya an equally concerned look. I moved to the side so Kyouya could step in beside me.

"My sincerest apologies, ," he said with a light bow.

She waved him off. "Sade, are you feeling alright? What happened? You're a complete mess!" She held the tissues out to me, not asking me to take them. She expected me to take them.

I pushed up my glasses, accepting the tissues with a bow. "I'm sorry, but I don't really want to talk about it. Your concern is greatly appreciated though, so thank you for that. And these."

Her expression softened, the slightest bit, though it still held a great deal of motherly concern. "Okay. Whatever you say. Are you completely sure you don't want to talk about it though?"

I (for the thousandth mcfreaking time) sniffled."Yes ma'am. I'm sure."

She nodded, "Well, just know that I'm always here to talk to, 'kay hon?"

I nodded back.

She addressed Kyouya. "Do you have anything to add?"

"No, ma'am," he said politely.

Another nod. "Okay. Well, you two had better head to your seats now. Class begins in-" she looked at the clock hanging above her desk, "-a few seconds."

We obeyed, pivoting for our seats near the window. The bell rang while I retrieved my homework and notebook from my bag.

"Good morning, everybody," said, projecting her voice and standing tall (even though she was inches shorter than me), "I have an exciting announcement to make, and that'll come right after I mark today's attendance. Please wait patiently in your seats and take out last night's homework."

took to said task, eyes flicking between the class and the monitor. "Hideaki Ikeda is absent again?"

"Yes ma'am," said few class mates.

"Alright then. Let's get started!" she returned to the center of the room with her hands clasped together and an enthusiastic smile. "You all remember our collaboration with 's art class last semester, correct?"

"Yes," the class said.

"Then the announcement I have is simple. Very soon, we will be collaborating with 's Theatre class to assist in the production of a play!"

Cheers resounded all around me. I smiled at the thought of getting to act for two periods a day, but I was inwardly screaming at the thought of group work. Out of all the things I hated at schools, besides petty people and oral presentations, group work was at the top of the list.

Why? Well, to put it simply, group work is ninety eight percent of the time "Sade doesn't communicate well so she's practically useless" or "we've decided Sade will take all of the load". Also, there's the subject of how-the-hell-do-I-hold-a-not-so-awkward-conversation-jesus-I'm-so-sorry.

I was semi-hopeful though. Ouran had already provided me with a whole (Host) club of people to successfully socialize with. 's Theatre class was my next period, so the chance to work with the twins (and hopefully not turn into a husk of myself in doing so) wasn't impossible.

However. . .if I was in both classes, what role was I going to take? Writer? Actress?

"Settle down, settle down please," chuckled. "We will be working together for the next few weeks. The task for both classes as a whole is to produce an entire play, obviously. However there's a challenging twist to it."

A few people groaned with loathing.

She went on, "Small groups of actors, actresses, and you lot, the writers, will be assigned to translate an original play written by Ouran's very own from Japanese into English. Although individual groups will be interpreting scenes, you will all still be required to work together to make sure that your translations fit together seamlessly. The same will be expected of 's students and their general portrayals of each character."

Hm. I supposed that I could do both here. Translating would probably be easier because I wouldn't have to memorize any lines, but then again I'd probably butt heads with my team mates about interpretations. The role of an actor seemed more appealing to me rather than the very thought of translating and writing.

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Sade?"

I pushed up my glasses. "How will we be separated into groups? Are you going to choose for us or are we choosing ourselves?"

"Ah! Good question, . We'll be allowing people to choose their own groups, and in return, we shall choose which scenes they are to deal with-" She paused, her polite expression quickly turning mischievous, "in the first round."

More commotion.

"You heard me correctly, my dearest third years. I say first round because the first work loads you receive will not be the play itself, but a sample from William Shakespeare. and I will be lurking in the shadows, assessing your chemistry with your chosen partners and your working capabilities. Afterwards, we'll release the entire script to you and the 's class only, just so you know where you'd like to head when requesting a scene to translate, and then what scene to audition for. Are we clear?"

Words of affirmation came. I raised my hand again. "Which one of 's periods will we be working with?"

"Second."

Aw yisssss.

A girl in front of me raised her hand. "How much of our grade will this count for?"

"It will count in every area. Participation, homework, classwork, tests, etcetera. As a whole, this will count as a very large unit, hence being fifteen to thirty percent of your grade. It is nearing the end of the year after all. I expect an awful lot from you all."

People all around me were squirming in their seats with happiness (others put their heads in their arms in mourning for their grades' inevitable deaths). I faced Kyouya.

"Sounds fun to me," I said cheerily, "how do you feel about this?"

He pushed up his glasses. "That depends on who I end up working with."

I shrugged, noticing quieting people. "I hope you get an agreeable group then."

The rest of class, once again, passed by like grains of sand in an hourglass. Probably because of my fantasizing about being in the limelight. By the end of class, I had practically forgotten the feeling of dried tears on my cheeks, and the heaviness that lingered in my now dry eyes.

I walked with Kyouya just outside the exit, then stationed myself against the outer wall of the classroom. The sting in my eyes remained. "Are my eyes still red?"

"Yes. Bloodshot, to say the least. I'll see you at lunch."

I rolled my eyes and huffed, dissatisfied with my condition. It had been a while since I crying this hard. "Crap. It is what it is. Thanks anyways, Kyouya-senpai. See you at lunch."

Some creeping entity suggested that I watch him as he left, but I refrained from doing so and looked away. I recognized said thought as what one would call 'the development of irrational crushes', also known as something that I didn't need.

I imagined it as a person, used an imaginary boulder to crush (hehe, see what I did there?) it into a red stain, then neatly wiped away the mess and moved on to searching through the sea of students for the twins.

As soon as I saw their copper tresses they made concerned faces and sped up. Apparently, Kaoru had gotten the faux cast that he mentioned yesterday. I sighed, strutting to meet them half way and resigning myself to the fact that I'd have to start from scratch to identify them.

"Sade," said the one with the softer voice and left part (as in his left), "you still look pretty bad. What happened to you?"

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it right now instead of later?" said the deeper voiced one with the right part.

My smile was one sided. "Sorry. I'll talk about later. And yeah, Kyouya-senpai told me the same thing. Do you mind going easy on me today, like, telling me which one of you is which?"

The one with the left part, Kaoru I guessed, eyed me and disregarded my second question. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Hikaru sighed at my secrecy. "What he said. And what about the trick you talked about yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said with smile, "and sorry, I'm not telling you what it was either. It'd make it harder for me to tell you guys apart."

They looked at each other, silently agreeing to drop the subject. "Eh," they said to each other, "Fair enough."

They turned around and spaced out, motioning for me to fill the middle space. I joined in and matched their stride. This tiny gesture of friendship pleased me. I beamed.

"Before we start more conversation," said Kaoru.

"We want you to take a good guess at who's who," said Hikaru.

Their mischievous selves had returned. I was grateful for the positive mood shift.

"Uhh. . ." I chewed on my lower lip, hesitating to reveal my choice. Unfortunately, I had the memory span of Dory the fish, so I couldn't recall anything that would help me besides their general demeanors. "You're Hikaru," I said to the one on my right, "and you're Kaoru." I said to the one on my left.

"Hehehe! Wrong-o!" they said, poking my shoulders with their left hands.

"Hey!" I said brushing them off with mock offense, "I said go easy on me! Gimme some time, would you? Besides, it's better for me to identify you by personality and common gestures anyways, right? A lucky guess isn't all that special."

They shrugged. "We guess not."

Ha.

The one on the left shrugged with both arms, the one on the right shrugged with one-his good arm. Kaoru was the twin on the left, since Hikaru was the one who actually had a broken arm. I acted as if I hadn't seen a thing. (Shameful, really. Trying to dupe a woman in tears).

"Did you guys hear about the new project in 's class?"

"A little bit," Kaoru said, "some third year students were talking about one. Must've been from another period."

"Yeah," Hikaru said, "something about a group project."

"Close enough," I remarked, "Those were kids from 's English class. They're collaborating with 's Theatre!"

"Really?" Hikaru said.

"But what are the English students going to do? Direct?" Kaoru asked.

"Not quite. We're translating a play written by from Japanese into English," I said.

"We?" Kaoru asked, "what do you mean 'we?' You're in our class, not theirs."

"I'm in their class too."

Hikaru blinked firmly, a confused look on his face. "Wait, so you have Tatum twice a day?"

I chuckled as we turned another corner. "No, silly. I'm in 's class too."

"But she only teaches English for second and third years," Kaoru commented.

"I'm in her third year English class. I thought you guys would have figured that from where I'm standing when you come to get me."

Their jaws dropped. I laughed again, spotting Haruhi approaching us. Hikaru saw him, then grabbed his arm and pulled him into our little line of friends.

"Ow!" he said, "Hikaru, would you watch-"

"Did you know that Sade is in third year English even though she's still a first year?" he interrupted.

Haruhi glanced from me back to him. "Eh, no."

Kaoru interrogated me, leaning further into my line of sight. "Did you get let into school late or something?"

"No. I got into school about the same time as you guys."

Well, that was part of the truth. I went to school at an early age, but not _that_ early. It was only by a few months, since the age restriction would've held me back by a full year because my birthday was in September. Luckily, my parents saw my potential and fought the school board on it.

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Impossible. Do you have any more third year classes?"

I pushed up my glasses. "Well, I have Theatre, a mixed grade class with you guys."

"That doesn't count," Kaoru said pointedly.

"Um, I have Art History. It's a mixed class too. . .but I guess it still counts."

"Art History?" Haruhi said. "I heard that that one's really hard."

"Yeah! I heard it was college level," Hikaru said. "Only the crazy smart kids take that one."

My smile widened with pride. It was the only advanced level class I had taken at my old school too. This time, however, I knew how to handle it better.

"Wow," Haruhi replied. He turned back to me. "How are you liking it?"

"Mm. . .the content itself isn't really that hard to understand, but the standards for the final exam are. Taxing, if you ask me. Plus sh-" I stopped myself, nearly saying 'a shit ton of memorizing'. God, I really had to work on that. "Plus a ton of memorizing"

"Are you feeling any better now?" Haruhi asked. I could see him eyeing his next classroom.

I nodded. "Much better, thank you. I'll see you at lunch."

"Yep. See you guys later!" Haruhi flashed an adorable smile and then left us.

"So, I'd like to know more about this collaboration, please," the Kaoru said.

I filled them in on all the other details in class, while was readying his teacherly duties and such. We hyped over it together, spending the following classes talking a whole lot more. It occurred to me that in the span of merely twenty four hours my interaction with my new friends was already becoming more close.

My red flags were already raising.

If my parents were really that pissed about the Host Club, they might've been worked to reassign my guides and rearrange my seating charts with my teachers. But. . .how would they even do that? Realistically speaking it wasn't practical since: A) Tamaki and Kyouya's parents are both very important 'players' here and B) they couldn't really lie about anything either.

No. No, that wasn't the real issue. I was.

My parents raised me to be honest when it matters most, and apparently, this mattered a lot them. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to go behind their backs and see the Host Club if they really disagreed all that much. The guilt would eat me alive.

More importantly, how good of a friend would I really be to them? I wasn't even good at maintaining my current friendships. I was terrible at remembering things, and then there was that whole apathy thing.

It was terribly easy for me to shrug people off even if they still wanted to talk to me. It wasn't the "I'm better than you" type of not caring. It was the loss of interest.

Hell, that's not even apathy. The failure to be kind to those who were kind to me would be better described as a 'real-bitch-move'.

The red flags were warning me not to grow too close before we could establish anything strong enough to be broken.

Luckily, besides the revelations of growing closeness and warnings against that, I also remembered that I'm a master of suffocating my emotions. In these types of situations, at least. _Stop being so damn overdramatic_ was the mantra I repeated to myself.

We arrived in the cafeteria laughing about one of my own personal stories. I got confused when we went passed the lunch line without stopping.

"Uh, guys? What about your lunch?" I asked.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Hikaru said with a wink. "We ordered special bento boxes from our personal chefs. They should be at our usual table with the rest of the club. We didn't sit with them yesterday because the older members were doing other stuff."

"Oh. Okay," I replied.

"Over there," Kaoru said, pointing. He and Hikaru took the lead, and I followed behind them.

"Sade!" Honey and Tamaki said. Haruhi, Mori, and Kyouya all acknowledged me with either a wave or a nod.

"Hi everybody," I said, plastering on a smile.

Kyouya sat on the far, upper-right corner of the the table. Tamaki was sitting next to him, with Haruhi on his other side, leaving an empty seat at the end. I figured that the twins wanted to sit next to each other on the opposite side of the table with Mori and Honey, so I took the seat next to Haruhi.

"Are you feeling any better?" Honey said

"Yes. Much better, thank you. A little dehydrated, but that's to be expected when one cries," I replied with a smile, thinking to myself that this was going to be much harder than I originally thought. I laid my bag beside me and folded my hands in my lap, referring to Step One: let them know they're appreciated.

Why? Because, Step Two would be one hell of a band-aid to rip off.

"Again, before I say anything else, I just want to thank you all for being so concerned about me even though you've only known me for a day. I'm grateful for that."

"It's no problem, really," Haruhi replied, swatting the air beside him.

"We like helping people!" Honey said.

"We care." Mori commented.

"Don't sweat it," Hikaru said, putting his good arm around Kaoru.

"Yeah, the Host Club's got your back," Kaoru said, giving me a thumbs up.

Kyouya sat silently, watching. He nodded when we made eye contact.

"See!" Tamaki said gleefully, leaning forward to see me. "The Host Club is here for you, just like we are for the rest of our classmates. You can tell us anything, after all, it is a host's job to make every girl happy." He tugged the lapels of his blazer, clearly pleased with himself.

I stiffened, just barely. Sorry Tamaki, but your plan kinda backfired because your marketing sucks.

Still, seeing so much support made smile a lot. It almost brought tears to my eyes, but I chose skip the sad sack act and just smiled more.

He blinked, a look of remembrance gracing his features. "Say, did you tell your parents about us yet? Surely they would trust us gentlemen to aid you with your sorrows."

Crap.

I coughed to clear the thickening dread in my voice. Step Two: Rip off the band-aid.

"Ahem. Um, actually, they don't."

Every single member shifted uncomfortably.

"When I told my mother about the Host Club, she approved whole heartedly. She was able to see kind of people you guys are. That changed this morning. I was in the car with my parents and ended up telling my father about you all. He approved. Begrudgingly, at that, but he approved."

I took a breath.

"However, he and Mom did not approve of the Host Club website."

The twins licked their lips and swallowed nervously. There was no change in Kyouya's general expression, per say, but I could almost see something change in his eyes when he pushed up his glasses. Haruhi, Mori, and Honey waited patiently.

Tamaki was heart-breaking to see. His eyes were wide, his body was tensed, and he was biting his lip. For the most part, he looked like a frightened puppy.

My gaze flitted to the side when I pushed up my glasses. "They disapproved of the Photo Gallery because they didn't think it was appropriate for people your ages to be 'acting like that'. As a result, they instructed me to refrain from associating with you guys."

"Oh no!" Honey said, one arm tightening around his stuffed bunny and the other gripping Mori. He said nothing, just stared at me with jaw tensed.

"What?!" the twins said, pressing their mouths into straight lines.

"That's horrible," Haruhi remarked and put a hand over his mouth.

Tamaki's mouth hung open, his face the embodiment of regret. Kyouya pushed up his glasses. "And that's what made you cry? Their prohibition?"

I grazed my front teeth over my lower lip. "No. Not initially, at least."

"Then what?" he asked.

This was where I had to twist the truth. This was what made it hard. I didn't want them blaming themselves for me getting slapped and then weeping out the Pacific Ocean at the rose labyrinth.

And I for damn sure was not about to tell them that I was slapped in the first place. My parents weren't abusive. This was just one bad day out of a one hundred and seventy five other good days. The last thing I needed was, in this conservative nation, for them to call child services over a single outburst and have my parents dragged away.

"The crying was my fault. Self-inflicted. I would've been fine if I hadn't insisted against their orders. I continued to talk back and ended up saying things that _I_ shouldn't have. Because of that, they ended up saying things that _they_ shouldn't have."

Tamaki winced. "You got into an argument along with the scolding?!"

Kyouya narrowed his eyes, unsatisfied with my response.

I sighed. "Listen, Kyouya-senpai, if you want a more detailed response, that's fine. They wanted to switch out my guides and rearrange my seating near you guys. That's impractical, frankly, considering you haven't actually done anything wrong. It's not all that possible either because of plenty of personal reasons."

"Those being?" he pressed on.

I sighed once more. "Your father is my dad's client and my mother's boss. Tamaki's father is, for the most part, one of the only reasons why I'm here. Technically speaking, I'm not even supposed to be here. It's too late in the year for an honour student to accepted, especially if I'm an unprecedented second one. I got lucky. Do you see where I'm going here? Announcing problems with either of you is a big bowl of no."

"Sade," Tamaki said shakily. He stood and came to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I am so sorry for the grief that I have caused you. As the leader, all blame should be put on me for this." He looked at his hand on my shoulder and abruptly removed it. He put his head down. "Sorry."

Oh lord. I saw that. He remembered not to touch me, but this time it was because he thought he was making things worse.

"Tamaki-senpai, it's fine. Really. I told you, it's my fault. Not yours."

"She's right boss. It's not your fault. It's ours," Hikaru said with the same downcast expression.

"He allowed us to manage part of the photo gallery. He wasn't the one choosing the photos, or editing them like that," said Kaoru.

I looked at them incredulously. Were they deaf? I didn't need everybody falling to pieces here when the situation itself was hardly fixable. "Guys, I said that it's not your fault. It's mine."

"And that explains why one side of your face was redder than the other this morning?" Kyouya interjected.

Aside from Kyouya they all ogled at me again, eyes wide with the curiosity of whether I had been struck in the face or not. "You should never hit someone with glasses!" Honey cried out.

I cut my eyes at Kyouya. "I don't have any fancy schmancy logic about why I don't cry symmetrically. If you're implying that I was physically disciplined then I can assure you that I wasn't. I grew out of that by age nine."

We held a staring contest.

"Okay," Haruhi said, making eye contact with the most recent speakers, "before everybody falls apart I have two questions for you, Sade. One, are you really feeling okay? Two, after what's happened, do you still want to hang out with us? I know you didn't ask me, but I think that you should do whatever you feel is right. Parents aren't always right. Right guys?"

Because of Haruhi, a beacon of light and the apparent mediator here, I watched as everyone (including myself) visibly relaxed ourselves and settled down. Kyouya nodded, and I heard the twins and Tamaki audibly agree with him.

"Great questions, Haruhi," I said to him, " And you're right. Parents, just like any other person, aren't always right. Yes, I really am feeling okay. And yes, hanging around you guys would be really cool. I'm not that worried about my parents now anyways."

It was true. I knew they wouldn't beat me into compliance or anything else of that sort. The guilt was gone. If my parents asked about them, I would tell them. Simple.

"Although, I won't be around during hosting hours because that was the one thing they forbid before finding the website. Sound good?"

"Sure," Haruhi said firmly. "That sounds great." He put a hand out for me to shake, which I did.

The others regarded me with reluctance that contrasted Haruhi's approval.

"But what about your parents?" Tamaki said.

"The worst thing they've done so far is cancel my haircut appointment. There's not much more they can do than tha-"

"Hey guys," said a male voice behind me.

Attention shifted from me to him. I turned around to view the newcomer. For a nanosecond I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest because he startled me so badly.

A tall, red haired boy approached us. His face was set with deep frown lines that contrasted the welcome look in his eyes and his gentle smile. His uniform was disheveled in a messy, yankee style that, usually, only yakuza wore. The blazer was unbuttoned to reveal a yellow sweater, and the collar was unfolded.

"I was just wondering if-whoa." He looked over at Tamaki, who (still) looked like dejected puppy. "Am I interrupting something, guys? I could come back later because it looks like you're kinda busy." He rubbed the back of his neck.

Tamaki blinked a few times to clear his stupor, wearily replying with, "I'm sorry Casanova but you'll have to wait-"

I got up and put a hand in front of Tamaki's mouth, looking back and forth pointedly between the new guy and the rest of the club. An act of mercy, really. I was thinking about shaking his shoulders instead. "Ehhh no you won't. You're fine where you are, man. The Host Club would love to help you. Right. Tamaki."

It was less so a question than it was a shove to action. I wasn't doing this just to escape the conversation altogether. I did it because I could no longer stand the look Tamaki's face. His intentions were practically written on his forehead. I could tell that he was probably screaming inside that he had ruined my life and that he shouldn't interfere with anyone else's because of that.

Well, I wasn't about to let him do that. The twins and dearest Haruhi already told me that the Host Club was known for its hospitality, not its tendency mind their own business.

My hand moved from hovering in front of his mouth to behind him to pat him on the back. "Right, Tamaki?" I repeated and then looked back at the others, "Especially because they know that it makes so many people happy to see them help others." I (non-discreetly) pointed at myself when I said 'people'.

The poor red-headed guy looked at me like I was a nutcase. Tamaki looked like he was still hesitant to comply, so Honey took the reigns. "Sure Casa-chan!"

The rest of the members followed his lead.

"Great." I addressed red-headed guy with eye contact, a firm tone and an informal bow. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Sade Tanielu, first year."

"Eh, Ritsu Kasanoda," he said, sounding a bit nervous and mirroring my bow. "Oh, and uh, I'm a first year too."

"Well, nice to meet you first year buddy. Now, do you need privacy with the Host Club or are you okay with me sticking around?"

"Huh?" he said, scratching his head, "uh, no. It's fine, I guess. I just wanted to ask them for advice. I don't mind."

"You sure?"

"No-er, I mean yeah. It's fine I'm sure."

"Alright then," I nodded and retreated to my seat next to Haruhi. I turned my body away from him and pulled out my phone to look busy, even though I was still listening.

"Good to see you again, Kasanoda. What do you need help with?" Kyouya asked, turning himself around to face Kasanoda.

"It's Tetsuya, Kyouya-senpai." I heard him walk to the neighboring table and sit down.

Ooh. Boy drama.

"He's been acting sorta weird lately, y'know? He hasn't been talking to me or anyone, and when he does, it's fast and. . .weird."

"You mean he sounds forced? Awkward, maybe?" said Hikaru.

"Yeah. That. Plus, he won't eat much. He goes out a lot more than usual and doesn't arrive until later on. He always goes straight to his room when he comes home from those outings too."

"Hmm. . ." Tamaki said, seeming to have finally regained his princely aura, "it's that bad?"

"Senpai, he won't even play kick the can with me and the guys anymore!"

A collective gasp resounded among all but Kyouya and Mori, though Mori looked like he was mentally gasping.

"The progress we made is gone!" Kaoru cried, flopping on the tabletop. I exhaled through my nose in lieu of laughter.

"Fear not, men!" Tamaki said, "We can still get to the bottom of this. Casanova-"

"Kasanoda," I corrected. He continued as if I hadn't said a thing.

"Bossanova you can-"

And then the bell rang. When I looked up I saw Tamaki up standing in some weird power stance with a fist in the air, a fist on his hip, and one leg on his chair. "You can meet us after school because there is no time left! Right men?"

"Right!" the club replied, saluting him.

Kasanoda shrugged. "Whatever you say. See you then." He melded with the other students around us who went to their own classes.

They all dropped the act and gathered their own things for class. I hiked my backpack up my shoulder. Honey, Mori, and Kyouya went one way and the twins, Haruhi, and me went for another, since we all had classes together. Tamaki followed us, telling us to wait for him.

"But Tama-chan your classes are this way," Honey called out.

"It's fine! I have leeway as the Chairman's son! I'll catch up with you all!" He called out. He hurried to my side.

"Isn't that abuse of power?" Haruhi asked.

He had a cheeky look about him. "No. It's appreciation of privilege."

"So inform us why you're following us again, please?" said Hikaru, deadpanning.

"I wasn't finished talking to this lucky girl," he replied, nudging me with his elbow.

"What is it, Your Highness?" I said with an eyeroll and a wry smile.

He chuckled. "I was wondering whatever possessed you to do what you did back there?"

"Do what?" I asked.

"Disregard your parents' orders despite their wrath? Urge me to assist Casanova?"

"Oh. That," I replied. "Forgive me, but I don't have the stomach to continue watching someone who, from the things I've heard, practically breathes teamwork and acts of kindness, regress into a saucer-eyed husk over a mistake that wasn't even his."

"A saucer-eyed husk you say?" he squinted at me and pouted.

"Indeed," I replied.

"Pfft. And your mouth was wide open too," Haruhi added.

"Such cruelty from my fair mai-"

Kaoru, for some reason, used his cast to strike Tamaki's side. Tamaki choked on his words and then revised them, saying "from my fairly high maintenance good man. Not very gentlemanly of you, eh?"

Haruhi deadpanned. "No, not at all."

He rolled his eyes at him. "Whatever. Anywho, Sade, will we be seeing you after school before club hours?"

"Eh, you might," I shrugged. "Depends on how early my mom gets here."

My phone buzzed a few times. I retrieved it.

 _From: Mom_

 _ur hair appointment is still on_

 _Dad's picking u up after school to come with us to the hair salon after work bc he had a change in schedule_

 _im using the 2nd car to pick up the other kids_

 _ur picking up sushi frm the restaurant Kyotama's Sushi_

 _u cn use the xtra yen in ur bag to xplore the plaza near it_

 _use Google Maps n keep ur phone charged n stay n crowded areas w lots of ppl_

 _luv u we'll talk in the car_

I sighed. "Nevermind. I have to run an errand after school. I'll see you tomorrow, Tamaki-senpai."

"Aww," he said, disappointed, "was that your mother?"

"Yup. Sorry."

"See you tomorrow," he said, looking to weave his way back from where we came. "Oh, and Sade?"

"Yes?"

He set both hands on my shoulders, bending to my level. "I won't be letting you cry again anytime soon, 'kay? All smiles from here on out. I'll make sure of it."

The feel of his hands on my shoulders and his glittering violet eyes looking into mine made me feel a rush of happiness and comfort. I grinned. "Thank you, senpai. I know you will."

He dashed for his next class. The second I returned to walking with the everybody else, my mixed feelings about Mom's texts returned. Happiness that I could get my hair cut, of course, but also emptiness. I wasn't mad anymore. The feeling had just. . .seeped out and disappeared.

The emptiness made me angry that I was no longer angry. Then I felt frustrated that I was angry about not being angry. Then I took a breath and chilled out, thumbs hovering over the screen to text back " _'Kay thanks. Love you._ "

Just like I usually would.

Just to be the bigger person.

Just in case something happened.

Just because I hadn't said it this morning. . .but 'something' never happened, did it?

I fell back on already repressed memories of this morning, where the only thing she was concerned about when Dad slapped me was the fact that other people would see me crying.

I texted back.

 _Thanks. See you after school._

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **(A/N):**

 **If you haven't noticed already, Sade's methods of regulating her thoughts can be odd. . . at times. A bit violent minded, if I do say so myself. Behind that poor baby's layers topical acne medicine, teen turmoil, and poufy pink pout (try saying that three times fast), she's often screaming.**

 **Random character facts:**

 **= Sade has beauty marks (or moles, whatever you call them) above her lip on the left side, another lower and further left than that one, and a third one on her right cheek.**

 **= Sade has eczema scars. Eczema, as defined by google, is "a medical condition in which patches of skin become rough and inflamed, with blisters that cause itching and bleeding, sometimes resulting from a reaction to irritation (eczematous dermatitis) but more typically having no obvious external cause." The scars are evident in discolored, darker spots on her wrists, forearms, in spots on her legs, and in larger patches behind her knees.**

 **= She is very careful about wearing her glasses at certain times, despite how shitty her eyesight is. Wearing glasses for too long can sometimes cause a tan line on her face, so she often puts them on her head when outside.**

 **= Her favorite accessory is her father's large diamond stud earrings. They're both flashy and simple, and, in her opinion, go with everything. Bonus: she likes the tougher, masculine feel that she gets from wearing them, as she sometimes imagines herself working with her father as a bouncer. (Such a Daddy's girl, tsk tsk).**

 **Stay hydrated. Fa'afetai. Peace out.**

 **~ Nua**

 **Last edited: 11/19/2016**


	10. Ch9

**(A/N):**

 **I'd like to see what made you guys react the most (laughing, crying, gasping, etc.) so please leave inline comments if possible. Thanks in advance.**

 **Carry on.**

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **! ! !**

 _From: Mom_

 _Change of plans. Dad's coming to pick u up nw bc of the rain._

 _Don't worry about it, Mom. It's just water. I have an umbrella this time. And a heavier sweater to put over my blazer. Tell him that he can finish his shift. I'm almost at the plaza/Kyotama's Sushi bar anyways._

 _Is ur phone charged?_

Most of my battery was spent on playing music through my earbuds, leaving me with nine percent battery. I bit my lip.

 _19%. It's enough._

 _K. Thnx babe._

 _You're welcome._

Refusing to say 'no problem' instead of 'you're welcome'and ending without an 'I love you' were the only small victories I could keep, even though she probably didn't notice how curt my last text was. The light rain made me too happy to hold a grudge.

More than half an hour had passed since I headed out from Ouran Private Academy.

The small stretch of a street between the plaza and I was dotted with nothing but city funded greenery and traffic lights. Two cars were parked in front of one another on the curb next to the closest shopfront. There were no pedestrians in sight. The open space would make any attackers easy to see, but I was in no real danger. Checking was just a precaution as an unaccompanied young woman these days.

My blazer tied was tied around my waist and my rain gear was packed up, encouraging both a potential cold and an onslaught of assailants in my 'scandalous' dampened white v-neck t-shirt.

With a black tube top underneath, of course, because I'm not _that_ bold. It was raining, and every girl knows that the white fabric type I was wearing became sheer when dampened.

To enhance the 'I'm in a sad music video' feeling (and further shield my chest) I undid the braid in my hair and parted it to the side.

My glasses were practically kaleidoscopes with all the raindrops that had collected on the lenses. I dried them with my shirt, then wiped them clean with the microfiber cloth in my pocket. I took the earbud out from my left ear and looked around again to see if anybody was following me. I hadn't worn both earbuds in the first place out of consideration for my surroundings.

Apparently, I wasn't as close to the plaza as I thought. Another check to my dying phone revealed that it was straight ahead, about a block away.

The buildings were worn down. And not in the welcoming way either.

Not worn down as in loved by many and glowing with old age and use. Worn down as in covered with mold. Grey stucco walls that were once white. Unlit neon signs carelessly left dangling on rusty hinges. Canopies with tattered edges, and yet, still serving their purpose, as the sidewalk below them was dry.

The dark, barren space was ominous to stroll through.

My phone buzzed. I ignored the rain and retrieved it, only to be disappointed by a darkly lit screen. I forgot about setting it in power saving mode, which lowered the brightness when the battery was at five percent and lower.

With a sigh, I hurried along to the closest shop to shield myself from the light and get a better view. As soon as I got there the rain fell even harder.

The smell of cigarettes didn't bother me, but the smell of mold did. There was a sign on the shop's glass interior reading, "Serpent's Ramen" and another one below it, reading, "CLOSED". The two vintage-modeled cars parked on the sidelines made me squint in suspicion.

I quickly moved to the second storefront instead, then checked my phone. It was 3:37PM, and Dad had texted me.

 _I'm coming right now. It's going to rain heavier. Get to Kyotama's Sushi bar ASAP. Put on your coat. I'm turning on the heater and the seat warmer so it'll be warm when you get here._

"Ah man," I muttered. My quest was coming to an end. It appeared that the weather had dampened not only my outfit, but my father's anger. He was back to his usual self.

 _Okay. Thank you, Dad._

 _Anytime De-de. I love you._

My lips pressed into a thin line when I contemplated what to say. I typed a message, but didn't send it yet.

 _Thanks|_

He hadn't exactly an apologized for slapping me across the face, but I supposed that he would at least treat me kindly when he got here. My conscience felt lighter when I added the next part.

 _Thanks, Dad. I love you too.|_

The screen went black before I could press send. It buzzed again before shutting off completely.

I exhaled harshly. "Fuck. Sorry Dad."

I rolled my earbuds around my phone, pocketed them, then dropped my backpack on the cement, and leaned it against the wall so I could untie the blazer from around my waist and put it on. A door in the alleyway between the shopfronts behind me slammed open, releasing loud voices and the deep laugh of a man who sounded drunk. I startled at the noise.

None of the people came out of the alley, so I couldn't see them.

"Wait!" said a male. He sounded young, like a teenager. "You can't go out and drive like this!"

"Tetsuya's right, Teru," said another young male, "you're drunk off your ass right now, so why don't the three of us just hit up a few of the new places down the block until you can actually walk in a straight line? Kyotama's Sushi Bar sounded pretty gr-"

"Ah, man," interrupted the apparent 'Teru'. He sounded amused, and older than the other two guys. "You're even more of a worry wart than you were before you left us, Sonny. What's a few glasses of wine gonna do ta this guy, huh?" He laughed, addressed the other one, though I couldn't tell in what order. "And you, boy. You're just as stiff and law abiding as when you left us. Even more so than Tetsuya-I mean Sonny. I thought you said that you were all grown up now."

The one who wasn't Tetsuya replied to the old man. "I am but-"

Hm. So this 'Tetsuya' kid went by the name 'Sonny', and the other guy went by 'boy'. At least, that's what Teru called him.

"Then have a little fun, loosen up your collar, and live a little would ya?" Teru scoffed. "A little joy ride isn't gonna hurt you. Although _I_ might hurt you if you don't straighten out and follow me to the damn car." That last sentence was dripping with growing impatience. "And I'm just going pretend that I didn't hear you suggest going to Kyotama's Sushi Bar. Do you even know what that place did to Serpent's Ramen or are you just stupid?"

My breathing regulated because of how quiet I was in listening.

There were three guys. Two of them were sober and young, while the other was old and drunk. The old guy, Teru, was trying to drive off, but Tweedle Dee (Tetsuya) and Tweedle Dum (Mystery Boy) were the ones whose brains were actually working. The sentimental way that Teru referred to Serpent's Ramen made it sound like he owned this dump of a business.

And business seemed to be failing because of a new competitor, perhaps?

Regardless, young, unprotected, noodle-armed me didn't think that being alone with three guys, not to mention a drunk one, was a good idea. I retied the blazer around my waist, hitched up my backpack, and calmly set to creeping away.

Speedwalking would be good, but I instead proceeded slower than usual because of my noisy ass shoes. I cursed myself for wearing clacky Oxfords instead of sneakers. My hands worked quickly to prepare me for possible combat.

I put my diamond earrings in my pocket and started to tie my hair up. Both would hurt like a bitch if they were yanked. I reached behind me, remembering that there was a pen in the side pocket of my bag.

The part of me that wasn't still eavesdropping pondered whether I should take off my glasses. Getting punched in the face would hurt more if I had them on.

"Mr. Ikeda, please!" begged Tetsuya. It occurred to me that I had heard 'Tetsuya' somewhere, but I couldn't figure out where from. "You said that you would talk about it with us if we got you the drinks, and we did! So-"

"Hehe, Sonny, my boy," chuckled Teru, "what's with the formality? It's _Uncle_ Teru, remember? Besides, you should already know me by now. Free booze won't cut it any more. I played you. And I'm not sorry either, because technically, you played yourself. Your father won't take no as answer anymore either, so you're both coming with me. You're lucky that I'm even willing to take you morons in, especially with what you've cost me. Now get the hell out of my way and follow along."

Father? Taking in? Tetsuya and Mystery Boy were beginning to sound like a bunch of runaway children.

"Uncle Teru, I can't go back now," Tetsuya said, "I've already joined another syndicate-"

In my struggle not to compute what he said, I froze.

 _Another syndicate._ Tetsuya was already in a yakuza syndicate. He and guy number two were trying to escape the past one now and failing at it, with _me_ to witness it.

If I got caught now I was going be killed for knowing too much. Or worse, I'd be tortured and sold. Either way, my family would be in dire straits.

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Tetsuya cried out.

"I'm calling for back up," Teru sneered, "they're going to get here and follow my car, in case you decide to do anything stupid."

Tetsuya and the second boy pleaded with him so desperately that I couldn't understand what they were saying, or what Teru was saying back. The blood pumping in my ears and the sick feeling in my stomach didn't help me in trying to concentrate either. I started praying for my family's and my own safety.

"Please!" Tetsuya cried once again. "You can't do this! I can't go ba-"

He was cut off by, what I guessed was, a slap to the face. After all, the sound of literally getting slapped myself was still fresh in my mind. I flinched, nearly feeling his pain.

"Dad!" exclaimed Mystery Boy.

Teru raged. "Do you really think that after all this time, that after all I've lost because of you, that some cheap wine and a pack of cigarettes would make things up to me? Huh?!"

Something bumped against the wall, followed by a small noise from Tetsuya. Teru probably had him by the collar, pinned and ready to sucker punch. My lower lip was damn close to bleeding with how hard I was biting it.

"Hey!" Mystery Boy called, "Let him go! Dad, let him go!"

Horror paralyzed me. It was stupid decision on my part, but it was getting too climactic for me to leave.

"Don't touch me you shitstain! You don't even have the right to call me your father!" Teru hollered back.

There was a crashing sound and another hurt noise from Tetsuya. Most likely tossed aside into a trash pile, judging by the rustle of filled plastic bags.

"It's bad enough that the boss's son had to run away with his tail between his legs like a little sissy, but it's worse that you, a coward that I was supposed to call my son left with him! You could have been a godfather, Hideaki! You could have been the next gang boss of the Sendo syndicate and you threw it all away! For what?! Books? School? Friends!? You idiot!-"

It was with horrible dread that this was beginning to sound familiar to me. The reasoning of a completely enraged, though to higher extremes than my own, parent. And it wasn't just that that sounded familiar.

Tetsuya called Teru ' ' earlier. Hideaki was his son, therefore, he was Hideaki Ikeda. He was that one student who had absent in English class these past two days.

Tetsuya was the name of the boy that Kasanoda had mentioned earlier, who had been acting shady towards him. Plus Kasanoda had that Yakuza fashion. There was no way that this was a coincidence. The Tetsuya here had to be the one Kasanoda was talking about.

Teru went on, unaware of how much he was revealing to me. "Once a gangster, always a gangster don't you know that? Don't you remember what people say? You'll never find anybody who'll have your back like we did, ever. You're alone here and everywhere else in the world because we. Are. Everywhere. Do you really think that someone who isn't like you would accept you? Did anyone else-"

"Stop it!" Hideaki shouted. "I did what was best for me! I'll do just fine without you, without all of you! I don't need you, I don't need any of your damn titles, and I for damn sure don't need the Sendo syndicate! I am not defined by m-"

He was not slapped, but punched. Hard.

A full-scale fistfight ensued. Yelling, grunting, cursing, the sounds of skin hitting skin, walls being crashed into-it all rang out from the alleyway.

My breath hitched as I looked around desperately for someone, anyone to help me. My phone was dead, so I obviously couldn't call anyone. I breathed deeply. My focus took to the alley, still hoping they wouldn't stumble out and catch me.

Logically speaking, though it was cruel, this was none of my business. I could probably-no, should probably walk away now and pretend I never saw or heard anything. Reporting them to the police was also an option, but these were no common criminals. They'd probably find a way to identify me and target my family.

However, if things went too far and people got severely injured, or _killed ,_ I'd torture myself with the fact that I could've helped somehow. Lord already knows that with my bleeding heart, I'd have to help out. Tetsuya and Hideaki were most likely runaways. They were just trying to set themselves apart from their past lives, or rather, join a new syndicate in general?

But there was no telling if the new syndicate was any better than the older one, or for what reasons they left in the first place.

It was a stretch to even consider the Host Club's judgement in this situation because I didn't even know them, but I remembered them mentioning helping Kasanoda with something related to Tetsuya and 'the guys'. Kasanoda's gang must've either been either behaved enough to gain the Host Club's approval or the Host Club was shadier than I thought.

In all likelihood it was the former and not the latter.

Right then. I was setting out for help.

The plaza was a lengthy sprint away, but better than nothing. I was ready to fight on the off chance that I got tangled up, but that was worst case scenario, and didn't seem to be a match in my favor. At best, my fighting skills amounted to the pointers Dad gave me on how to fight cretins like these. I had virtually no experience fighting for real.

But hey, pessimism wasn't what I needed. Instead, I needed unrelenting calmness and shit ton of faith in myself to make sure I survived.

I dropped my pack, ready to make a run for it.

Before I could tear myself from the scene a fist emerged from the alley, knocking Tetsuya unconscious and on his back outside alley. He wore a navy blue blazer, a cream coloured undershirt, and jeans. Long, tawny brown hair sprawled out underneath him. A pained expression contorted the soft curves of his almost feminine looking face.

It was obviously him because I heard Hideaki yell "Tetsuya!" and saw a blur of a limb in mid-swing before the fight receded back from where it came.

Instinctive steps forward to assist Tetsuya were halted. The limp noodle of a boy was tempting to pick up, but he would only slow me down and possibly blow my cover. The best thing to do would be to leave him behind and continue as planned.

The sound of glass breaking rang out.

The hallway spewed a shower of glass shards, and then Hideaki, fell backwards onto the cement.

He was clad in semi formal clothing similar to Tetsuya's. His eyes were nearly blocked from view by the fringe of his platinum blonde undercut plastered to his face by the rain. This lighting made his pale, high cheekbones look sickly. His white undershirt was stained red with (what I hoped was) wine and not blood.

I took one futile step back before the looming figure of Teru swaggered out.

Teru walked at a slow pace, broad shoulders back and stubbly chin jutted out like his chest. The snarl in his lips seemed to be missing a cigarette. He stared at Hideaki like he was a pile maggot ridden shit rather than his own flesh and blood.

His pale pink undershirt was speckled with red stains and soaked with rain. It was unbuttoned, revealing part of a dark, intricate tattoo. His left wrist also had traces of the same tattoo, slithering from beneath the sleeves of his slate grey suit jacket.

His right hand was in his pocket and his left hand held the dripping neck of a now broken wine bottle loosely. Three out of five fingers were still in tact on that hand, the damaged ones being his ring finger, which was cut off two joints down, and his pinky finger, which was cut clean off.

Yakuza sometimes cut off parts of their fingers to apologize for big mistakes to the gang boss-his disfigurement was probably Hideaki and Tetsuya's 'fault'.

He didn't notice me when he kicked Hideaki's ribs. Hideaki's slack body had no reaction.

"Tch. Stupid boy," he slurred, whipping out a switchblade from his pocket.

He knelt down on one knee beside Hideaki. He laid the bottle aside and brushed the hair from Hideaki's eyes with his knuckles. "Tch. 'I'll be fine on my own' you said. You haven't even slept, boy. I can see it in the bags under your eyes." The look of remembrance on his face turned into malice. "You're going to pay the same price that I did." He seized Hideaki's left hand and chuckled. "No. More than that."

Hideaki was going to lose more than a few a fingers if I didn't step in now.

"Stop!" I called out, holding out open palms in front of me. "Don't do it, please!"

Distracting him was the only thing I had actually thought through. My statuesque body awaited orders from my useless brain.

He let go of Hideaki's hand and stood up, waving the switchblade at me with every word. "Who the hell're you? Where did you come from and how long have you been here?"

My real name was not an option to reveal here, and neither was anything else he asked for. All I had to work with was the fact that he didn't know who I really was anyways.

"I-I am J-joyce Cruz," I said in a formal Japanese dialect. I purposely stuttered and slowed my speech to come off as more of an amateur speaker. "I came from h-hanging out at the p-plaza with my friends. I-I am from America. I was h-here to-"

He scoffed at me. "Foreigner, eh?" He rolled his eyes and in heavily accented English said, " **Go the hell back from where you came.** "

He returned to kneeling beside Hideaki and took his hand again. His blade held his full attention while he addressed me like a parent telling their child that they're busy.

" **And if you know what's good for you and your family you won't say a thing about this. I know your name and face, so I can easily track you down and kill you. Don't start thinking that fleeing the country will help either. We're everywhere.** "

" **Sir, those boys look hurt. Please put away the blade,** " I said carefully.

He shot me an incredulous expression. " **Excuse me? Do you not realize what I am?** " He stood up. " **Have you never heard of the yakuza, ?** "

He looked ready to beat the crap outta me.

Slowly, I shifted my right foot behind me and faced my torso to the right. To remain under the impression that I was unprepared, I kept my eyes wide and visibly trembled. If I got the chance to flee I was ready to, but this position served as a fighting stance as well.

In spite of that, provoking him and leading him into running after me was my main goal. If he had been sober he would have a bigger chance of catching me, but I doubted he could cover five metres without falling down. Especially in this rain.

With his focus diverted to me I could get to the plaza and receive help before the 'backup' he called for arrived.

Though, I prayed that whatever force enabling him to take down his own son and another guy single handedly would leave the premises.

" **No, sir. I haven't. I would gladly turn a blind eye if you would just leave them alone, please. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm worried that they might not live.** "

He let go of Hideaki's hand and went for me, shamelessly stepping on Tetsuya in the process. I pivoted to flee.

" **Stop!** " he hollered, " **If you move any further I'll shoot you!** "

My heart stopped. When I turned around I nearly choked on my own spit. The pen slipped from my grasp.

A switchblade remained clutched in his right hand. His left hand gripped a handgun with his remaining fingers. His head lolled to the side, sporting a smug half-smile.

This was impossible. Guns laws in Japan were strict. The ownership and use of a firearm was prohibited, save for heavily regulated hunting guns. It was common knowledge that even the yakuza were hesitant to own any for fear of life sentences in prison. He shouldn't have even been _holding_ one.

And yet, I was forced to accept this reality as he stalked toward me. Thoughts of my own, bloody death were overwhelming. Tears fell as vigorously as the rain above me. This time, I trembled for real.

He laughed, and then uttered one word before pulling the trigger.

"Die."

There was a popping sound. I jumped back, crying out when I felt a sting on the exposed skin of my upper arm.

He burst out laughing. I opened my eyes, not believing in the absence of blood on my shoulder or the fact that I was still standing.

"What the-" in my stupor I forgot to continue speaking English. He didn't seem to notice.

"Ha ha ha!" he exclaimed, doubling over and flinging away the gun. He slapped his knees, hardly able to get his words out clearly. " **You** -ha ha- **sure are** -ha ha ha- **an easy scare!** "

He was mad, surely. I straightened out my back. He wiped tears from his eyes before also straightening out.

" **That was an air-soft BB gun!** " he grinned, advancing. I retreated a step. " **No, no don't leave just yet. I can assure you that this-** " he held up the switchblade " **-is real.** "

His approach was painfully slow. I could practically hear his thoughts, debating which part of me he should cut off first.

He towered over me. The stench of alcohol in his breath attacked my senses, making my head ache and eyes tear up again. We were toe to toe.

"Thought you could pull a fast one, hmmm?" he growled, switching back to Japanese and smiling. He grabbed my shirt in his fist, and slowly raised the knife up to my face. It was angled above my left eye, with the blade's tip resting on the skin of brow bone. "How about-" he leaned toward me at eye level "I carve some respect into you!"

The blade was jerked away from my face, taking my glasses off with it and cutting the skin above my brow in the process. With his arm bent way back like that, I realized that he had left his face out in the open. I drew back and punched his nose.

Howling in pain, he dropped the blade and stumbled away from me. Both hands cradled his face.

The sight of him halted me in disbelief.

I had actually landed a hit. And he was going to get up and kick my ass if I didn't land another one.

Thoughts of fleeing began to fade away along with the whole foreigner act. Every sense was amplified by growing fear.

Heart rate pounding in my ears. Curbside shining with rain. Blood running down my brow and chilling in whistling wind. Sky darkening. Hairs on my arms and the back of my neck raising.

Advancing, I boxed Teru's ears with the flat of my palms. He sidestepped, hardly able to keep his balance.

A right palm strike to his nose, then a left one to his throat. A right punch just below his ribcage on the solar plexus. With each hit landed came a thump from impact and a pained noise on his part. I stepped on his foot, planted my hands on his shoulders, and pushed him away.

Mud and filth drenched my jeans and all of him. I followed him out fuming and fists balled, ready for another round. Aggression was replacing fear.

He laid like a dying insect; on his back and limbs twitching. His good hand covered half his face. The disfigured one was held out to me openly.

"P-please. . ." he whimpered, ". . .n-no more. I surrender. Just let me go, no more."

My steps faltered. What I had done was enough, but people like him were not to be trusted. He was probably faking surrender anyways.

I wiped more blood from my brow and kicked his ribcage. He shrieked and curled up.

I thought he was lucky that I didn't kick him in the mouth.

What was so nauseating here? The sounds that he let out or my lack of remorse? I felt guilty, but not guilty enough. Some small part of me reveled in the fear in his eyes, the fear caused by me.

Was my disgust a response to his reactions or was it a countermeasure to my satisfaction in them?

I went on. Another kick to the ribs, then a heel to his stomach.

"I don't trust you," I bellowed, narrowing my eyes at him. I put as much base in my voice as possible. "Hands out and palms up, now!"

Shakily, he began to fix himself into said state.

"I said now! Faster, damnit!"

Yes, I was being rough, but I saw no safe way around it. If I played the part of the merciful hero he might turn and come at me again, mistaking my kindness for weakness. Lord only knew if I would end up as the one as the on the curb if we went another round.

He was belly up and straightened out on the curbside. He looked at me as if his switchblade was already in my hand, ready to cut him open and slice him to ribbons. The fear in his eyes faded when I took a few steps back to distance us. This next part was going to be tricky.

"Roll over onto your stomach! Keep your hands out!"

He obeyed.

The switchblade, unbeknownst to him, lay at his feet. The BB gun lay closer to Tetsuya and Hideaki. I swiped the former and planned to pick up the latter.

When I came back to Teru I started having a mini panic attack. I planned to check his person for weapons and keep him restrained, but I still didn't know what came next.

His backup could be here any minute now. Hideaki and Tetsuya presumably had cellphones of their own. However, if I left Teru unattended long enough to retrieve one of them it would just be another chance for him to get back up and kick my ass.

Hell, if I let him recover from his pain he would do that, even with me standing over him.

A wall of concrete dropped down between my conscience and instincts. I neutralized any expression in my face, exhaled my humanity, and began driving my foot into his stomach.

Again. Again. Again. He was sandwiched between me and the curbside. It was hard for me to listen for bones cracking with all of his desperate cries in the background. I was trying to avoid breaking anything. Incapacitating him was the goal here.

First there was yelping, but yelping turned sobbing pleas for mercy, and pleas for mercy into choked guttural screams commanding me to cease my punishing. I stopped about fifteen seconds into that last stage, allowing him to catch his breath and curl into fetal position before I addressed him.

The first word came out shaky, but I quickly smoothed it over with a-matter-of-fact type tone, returning to speaking fluent Japanese.

"I'm sure that you've had enough by now, right?"

I bent down on one knee, one of my favorite outfits now soaked in rain and various filth from his incessant splashing. My left hand was planted firmly on his face. He was shivering. I twitched uncomfortably at the feel of stubble. It was similar to the feel of my own father's face, mud and filth's wetness aside. I used my right hand to press the switchblade's tip to the nape of his neck, without cutting anything.

"Well, I shall refrain from kicking you any further if you'd be so kind as give me your full and undeterred cooperation here. Surely you'd love to keep your head attached to your neck right? Try anything funny and it goes across the street. I'm warning you that I've never used one of these before, so it would be quite a messy experience indeed."

He was silent. The fact that my hack-job movie threats actually worked relieved me. Beheading was a bluff far beyond my capability anyway.

"Now then. Please lie on your stomach again and keep your hands palm down on the pavement. Spread your legs."

Maneuvering around him was a difficult task. I had to switch hands on the blade and half crept to his side. My wet hair fell into my face. Awkwardly, I whipped my head back to clear it.

My right hand patted down Teru's ribs, back, back pockets, and calves for hidden knives, avoiding his inner thighs.

"I'm checking your front pockets and your chest. Keep your hands in front of you and head on the ground like you're praying. Get on your knees."

Surprisingly, I found one in his suit jacket's right inside pocket. I took it and withdrew from him.

"You can lie back down."

He nodded.

"Where's your cellphone?"

"I-it's somewhere over there," he tipped his head in Tetsuya's direction, "I dropped it."

It wasn't anywhere in my line of sight. Unfortunately, I am incredibly nearsighted.

"Wait here."

I walked around his ankles and hopped on the sidewalk, careful to avoid getting within arms' reach. I cursed at the wound on my brow, using the neckline of my shirt to lightly dab it.

My two princes in distress, still lying on their backs, were motionless. They stared at me wide eyed and mouths agape like I had killed a man.

Hideaki's hair remained stuck to his forehead, but he had at least brushed it out of his eyes. It became clear to me that he was not Japanese, but Korean. His eyes were mono-lid shaped with brown irises.

"Are you guys okay?" I called out, approaching them. "Can either of you get up? Is anything broken?"

Tetsuya blinked a few times, looked at Hideaki, then gave me a strained response. "Yeah, I just. . .what was that?"

I looked back at Teru, then stopped in front of Tetsuya. "Umm. . .I don't really have an explanation for that. Just trying to survive, I guess." I avoided saying 'I'm totally inexperienced and that I wouldn't have been able to do that if he was sober' because Teru wasn't deaf.

"Are you dizzy?" I asked him.

"A little bit. Kinda light headed, but lucky anyways," he said. He sat up and ran a hand through his ponytail to clear it of any debris.

"Careful," I said with a strained smile, "Wouldn't want you getting cut now would we?" I forced a small chuckle, reaching down to help him up. He and Hideaki immediately eyed the knife in my hand. I withdrew the hand I had outstretched and used it to rub the back of my neck. "Oh! Uh, sorry. I didn't mean it like that. . .I mean. . .just be careful getting up. There's glass shards everywhere and they could cut you."

"Huh?" Tetsuya said. He blinked a few times as if clearing his head. "Oh, sheesh, don't be sorry. I'm sorry, actually." He partially sat up and reached out to me, "I could still use a little help."

I nodded and pulled him up. This small gesture was relieving. He wasn't terrified of me.

"Thanks," he said and brushed glass flecks from his clothes. "I was kinda startled because I didn't really expect that kind of attitude from. . ." he furrowed his brow at me and fiddled with the piercings in his left ear ". . .someone so little."

"Thanks."

Little? I was the average height for my age. I supposed that he wanted to say 'from a girl' but now wasn't the time to commend his manners.

"Yeah okay, awkwardness aside," Hideaki said, sitting up and brushing off his share of glass. "What I want to know is just what the hell that was. Are you studying under the Haninozukas or something?"

"Nope," I replied, taking a quick glance at Teru, who curled up on himself. "I was just trying to survive. Guess I'm just a violent person."

"No kidding," he muttered.

"Hide, watch your tone." Tetsuya glared. "That's no way to the girl who just saved our lives." He turned to me and bowed lowly. "Thank you so much. I'm sorry that he's behaving so rudely to you even though your trouble is our fault." He righted himself. "I'm Tetsuya, member of the Kasanoda syndicate. What's your name?"

"I'm-" I stopped myself, looking back at Teru who wasn't too far away. I lowered my voice. "I'm Sade Tanielu."

"Right!" Hideaki, who still sat on the ground, whispered loudly with an insincere smile. "And I'm the guy who can also hear you because I have ears too, and think that Tetsuya is revealing too much information to a girl he just met."

I deadpanned and pushed the bridge of my nose, slightly disgruntled to find that my glasses weren't there. "Cool it, hot shot. It's not like I'm gonna kick you next. You going to get up or are you hiding a broken limb?"

He swatted the air like there was some pesky bug. "I'm fine."

He put his hands on his knees and stood, only to lose balance and end up leaning on the wall for support. His hair swished to the side when he put his head down. It revealed a gash on his forehead about three and a half centimeters wide. Probably from the bottle.

"There's a cut on your forehead!" Tetsuya exclaimed, digging into his pockets and handing him a band-aid.

"Eh, Tetsuya, I don't think it's fixable with just a band-aid," Hideaki told him. He used his sleeve to mop the blood that was already running down his forehead.

"Ohhhh sheesh that looks bad. Uh, cuts anywhere on the face tend to bleed more than most. We need to see doctors, like, right now," I commented.

"That'd be just great," he sighed, unimpressed by his wound.

Teru twitched where he laid, like a spider that wouldn't die. I curled my lip in disgust then looked back at Tetsuya. "Guys, I think that we should call the authorities now. He's starting to wake up."

"Sure," Tetsuya replied. He whipped out a red flip-phone. "I'll call Kasanoda."

"Huh?" I said, "Now's not the time to be calling your buddies, Tetsuya, we need medical assistance and police protection. You should be calling one-one-ni-"

"Look out!" Hideaki yelled.

Teru came at us with full speed. Hideaki stumbled backward while Tetsuya yanked me away from Teru, saving both of us.

"You're wrong, little bitch," Teru growled. He resembled a rabid dog, eyes wild and mouth spewing saliva. " _You_ don't fuck with me!" he hollered. He waved his arms at me, right hand brandishing a knife.

He came slashing. Tetsuya and I scrambled out of the way. He threw his head back and laughed at us.

He spouted a bunch of incoherent nonsense before bounding at me again. Under two seconds later Hideaki rammed into his shoulder, knocking him into the wall.

Tetsuya held me back mid-leap. "Don't interfere," he said with his eyes on Hide.

"Well just what the hell are we supposed to do?!" I sputtered, refusing to blink while I watched them tussle. Neither were landing any punches because both were fighting for control of the switchblade.

Tetsuya tore his eyes from the scene and hurriedly pressed buttons on his phone, appearing to press the back space a lot because of his shaking hands. He seized my hand and pressed the ringing device into it, looking back and forth between my eyes and the madman in front of us. He bent down to my height. "I'm calling my friend, Kasanoda. When he answers the phone tell him that we're on Ninth Street at Serpent's Ramen and we're being attacked."

"But-"

"My name is Tetsuya and that boy over there is my friend. Now stay here."

His face contorted into some terrifying expression before he joined the battle.

 **?! ! ! !**

 **[3rd Person POV]**

Tamaki's phone rang while he was behind the changing curtain, putting his uniform back on. The Host Club had just closed up shop.

"Kyouya!" Tamaki called out, "Can you get that for me please?! I left my phone on the couch next to you!"

Kyouya, who was sitting on the couch studying, looked down at said item and rolled his eyes. "I've got it," he replied.

He squinted at the screen, reading 'Unknown Number'. He selected the answer option. "Hello?"

"Is this Tamaki-senpai?" said a young girl's voice. Her words were nasally and hurried. "The guy who helped my sister out of Ouran Academy yesterday?"

She sounded like she was crying. Kyouya set aside his study materials and stood up. "No. This Kyouya Otori, his friend. Do you need something?"

She sniffled. "You're the other guy on the Host Club business card?"

"Yes," he replied with growing suspicion.

"This is Corinne, Sade's little sister. Is Sade with you right now?"

"No. Tamaki told me that she couldn't be with us today because your mother asked her to run an errand."

A brief sobbing noise escaped her before she relayed the message to somebody else on her end of the line. Kyouya could barely hear it. She probably covered the mic.

"Miss Tanielu?"

Another sniffling noise. "I'm here, sorry. When's the last time you saw her?"

"Lunch. The twins, if you know of them, led her out of school today and let her go about her business." He checked his watch, noting that it was 3:47PM.

"She's supposed to be at Kyotama's Sushi Bar right now, but she's not answering any calls or texts, so I think her phone might be dead. My mom already tried calling the sushi bar's owner, but they said that she wasn't there. Mom's calling your school principal to check too, but I don't think that'll be fast enough help. We need her here right now because-"

Her voice broke.

"Dad got in a car accident. He's in the operating room right now and. . .and we're not sure if he's going to be okay."

Kyouya was silent. He went to the center of the room and snapped a few times to get the club's attention. He motioned for them to gather around him.

"Sade talked about you guys yesterday, about how you guys ended up helping a lot of people. I know it's a lot to ask since we're just strangers, Kyouya-senpai, but can please help us find her?"

Tamaki emerged from the changing room. "Kyouya, who's calli-"

Kyouya held a quieting finger out in his direction.

"Yes we can, Miss Tanielu."

Kyouya motioned for the club to follow him out the club room. They quickly fell in step with him (with Tamaki voicing his concerns a mile a minute). "We're going to Tamaki's family car right now. Is your mother still speaking to the Chairman?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. I'll need you to be my eyes. Do you remember what she was wearing today?"

She broke down again. "I-I'm sorry. I don't."

Apparently, the twins had heard. They feverishly whisper-yelled that they remembered.

"Everything's okay, Miss Tanielu, please remain calm. I can get that information from somewhere else. I'll be checking in with you shortly to update the situation. Call either this number or mine if you need anything. And please tell your mother to call me as soon as possible as well, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thank you. Goodbye." He hung up the phone and passed it back to Tamaki. They started jogging down the stairs.

"What's going on?!" Tamaki exclaimed, triggering the rest of the club's worried inquiries.

"Sade's father was in a car accident. Her sister called you to ask for help in finding her."

They burst into a million more questions and followed Kyouya around the next corner. He ignored them and continued.

"We're taking Tamaki's limousine. I'll work on locating her phone's last location before it died. Tamaki, I need you to instruct the driver to head to Kyotama's Sushi Bar on the route that's easiest to go on foot. Hikaru, Kaoru what was she last wearing?" Another turn. "Everybody listen to what they're saying and look for that once we start driving."

"She was wearing a black blazer and a white V-neck with darkwash Hollister jeans and black Oxfords," Kaoru supplied. Hikaru added a few things.

"Her hair was in a braid. The only accessories she had were her glasses, earrings, and backpack, which was also black." He slowed down some to fall in step beside Haruhi. "Haruhi, it's raining out there. Do you need my headphones?"

A mildly panicked expression crossed her face, but she waved it off. "I'll be fine, thanks. We need to focus on getting Sade. I can ignore it."

Hikaru nearly protested but instead shut his mouth and focused on looking ahead.

Haruhi furrowed her brow, remembering something. "Kyouya-senpai?"

"What is it?"

"That sushi bar was just opened a week ago in a completely new plaza. The quickest way to get to there is through the old shopfronts on Ninth Street, near Serpent's Ramen. Serpent's Ramen is hardly ever open but it's the unofficial gathering place for a lot of yakuza gangsters. We should probably hurry up."

"Yakuza?!" Tamaki, Honey, and the twins exclaimed.

Everybody ran. They were in the limousine and all (except for Honey and Mori) huffing for breath within less than five minutes.

"Sakamoto!" Tamaki yelled the moment he closed his door. "Head for Kyotama's Sushi Bar, now please! Make sure to go through the Ninth Street shopfronts as well!"

"Yes sir!" said the driver.

Kyouya opened his laptop, pulled out his cellphone, then punched in the passwords to both simultaneously. He passed his cellphone to Haruhi. "Read me the number at the top of that text conversation."

She called the numbers out while the rest of the club pasted themselves to the limo windows.

"Thank you," he said, swiping it back from her. It immediately started buzzing. Tetsuya's name flashed on the screen. He pressed answer, but didn't get a word out with the female on the line practically screaming in his ear.

"Hello?!"

Kyouya immediately recognized Sade's voice.

"This Kyouya speaking." He put her on speaker phone and put a finger to his lips for everybody to remain quiet.

"Kyouya?! What the hell?! He pressed the wrong-FUCK-button!" There was grunting and various other fighting sounds from her end of the line. Sade was breathing fast. She spoke almost too fast to be understood by anybody. "Kyouya-senpai this is Sade and I'm here with Tetsuya and his friend and we're being attacked. We're on Ninth Street at Serpent's Ramen and we need your h-OH SHIT-"

The line cut off.

 **V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V**

 **(A/N):**

 **Ugh, this chapter was fun but at the same time so taxing to write. I'm a little shaky on some parts, but CoraAngeli was a great help in making sure you guys could understand this chapter. Make sure to check out her OHSHC Fanfiction,** **The Raven and the Serpent** **!**

 **Still, I'd like some more extra help, so feedback and criticism would help me greatly.**

 **I'm tired.**

 **Make sure you eat regularly. Drink lots of water.**

 **E**

 **Peace out, mah lovelies. Fa'afetai for reading.**

 **~Nua**

 **! ! ! ! X**

 **Last edited: 11/20/2016**


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